Pulled in Two: Ginny versus Draco and Leo
by Zikare
Summary: Harry is pulled in two by Ginny & Draco. Draco schemes & Ginny is spoiled. Ginny's his perfect match & on the right side. He & Draco share a son, Leo, created with black magic. Harry, Leo, & Teddy are becoming a family; Draco is great with babies, Ginny isn't. Draco's not what he wanted, but is what he wants, not Ginny, no matter how much he wants to want her. Slash, Dubcon, Mpreg.
1. Chapter 1

Full Summary:

Harry is being pulled in two by Ginny and Draco. Draco schemes to get in the way and Ginny acts like a spoiled brat. Ginny is Harry's perfect match; she's beautiful, smart, funny, and was on the right side of the war. Harry and Draco share a son, Leo, created with black magic. Harry, Leo, and Teddy are becoming a family; Draco's great with the babies, but Ginny is not. Harry can talk to Draco, but not to Ginny. Draco's not what he wanted, but is what he wants, not Ginny, no matter how much he wants to want her.

Pairings: Starts off HarryXGinny becomes HarryXDraco

Warnings: Alcohol induced frotting (dubcon), Slash, Mpreg (Draco), Heterosexual. Snarky, Conniving !Draco. Annoying, Spoiled !Ginny. Mildly Cheating (kissing, touching, frotting) !Harry. Bottom !Harry and Bottom !Draco.

Author's Note: Neither Ginny or Draco are evil in this story, but he is sarcastic, scheming, manipulative, and lies when it suits him and she is bossy, commanding, self-centered, borderline greedy, and immature.

* * *

"Follow me," said Narcissa, leading the way across the hall. "My son, Draco, is home. If that is Harry Potter, he will know."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean, and the goblin Griphook were forced to follow Narcissa into the drawing room at Malfoy Manor by Greyback and his fellow snatchers. Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange were sitting in a pair of high-backed chairs in front of the ornate fireplace when they entered.

"What is this?" Lucius asked in his drawling voice.

"They say they have Potter," said Narcissa's cold voice.

"You fetch Draco; I'll see to the prisoners," Lucius replied.

Narcissa gave a curt nod, before disappearing out the way they came. Bellatrix, meanwhile, was circling the group with a tilt to her head and a crazy look in her eye. There was some chatter then, between Lucius, Greyback, and the snatchers. Lucius wasn't pleased with having the filth in his home, but Greyback was unwilling to leave without full payment. Lucius, of course, needed proof before paying, especially because in his swollen state, Harry so little resembled Undesirable No. 1.

The argument was interrupted when Narcissa returned downstairs with Draco, but they weren't alone, for Draco carried a baby in his arms. The baby was young, but capable of holding its head of raven hair up, as Draco carried the child under the armpits with one arm. A pair of bright green eyes flickered to Harry's for a moment, before moving on to take in the other sights in the room. The child was small, definitely under a year, but precisely how old, Harry couldn't say.

"Well boy?" rasped the werewolf.

"Is this supposed to be him, then?" Draco asked, approaching Harry, but keeping four feet back. He tilted his head from side to side, as if examining Harry's swollen face. Harry, for his part, refused to make eye contact, never letting his glance fall closer to Draco than the baby.

"Well Draco? Is it? Is it Harry Potter?" Lucius asked after a few minutes, when Draco still hadn't provided an answer.

"I can't—I can't be sure," said Draco.

"Well ask him something only the real Harry would know," Narcissa replied.

"Alright," Draco told his mother, before turning back to the prisoners. "This is Harry Potter's baby in my arms. Harry ought to know what his son's name is. You there, what is the baby's name?"

This statement and subsequent question were so out of left field that all Harry could do was splutter.

"That's not exactly fair, now is it Draco?" Bellatrix asked in her high pitched squeal of a voice. "Potter never met the baby; unless you told him the child's name before you left school, how would he know?"

"I did tell him," Draco insisted to his aunt, but shrugged, and turned back to ask another anyway. "Alright then, the Dark Lord has tasked me with looking after Harry Potter's love child. If this _boy_ doesn't know from whom the child was stolen, then he's an imposter for certain."  
"Yes, that ought to do. Answer him boy! Who is it?" Bellatrix asked with a cackle.

"Ginny?" Harry asked in a dreading whisper. He didn't understand how it was possible, because they'd been safe every time they'd been intimate and she'd never said anything all summer. She was the only one he'd ever been with, so it had to be her. But if it was her, then what did that mean? Had she been captured? Tortured? Murdered? Their child torn from her grasp? He looked now at the child for any sign of her features; the curve of her forehead or the shape of her cheek. But there was no one there but him and his father in the face, except for his mother's eyes.

"Ginny Weasley?" Draco asked incredulously. "Everyone at school knew Potter was dating that hag. He doesn't know; he's a fake."

"Give 'im another chance!" Scabbior, one of the snatchers, insisted.

"Well, give the boy another go; maybe Potter was sleeping around," a second snatcher said.

"Cho?" Harry asked instinctively, knowing that it couldn't be, because they'd never had sex.

Draco laughed at that. "Cho!? Now that is the answer of an imposter if ever I heard one. Why he's nothing more than a lookalike sent by that meddling little club of Dumbledore's."

"And the girl? What about the girl? She's the mudblood, isn't she?" Greyback asked.

"Don't know…" Draco drawled, shifting the baby to his other arm. "Say something mudblood."

When Hermione didn't speak, Bellatrix jabbed her wand into Hermione's throat. "Speak you little wench or I'll slit your throat," Bellatrix threatened.

"No, please, don't!" Hermione screeched in fear.

"Definitely an imposter. And the red-head; why he doesn't even _look_ like the Weasel! Lock them up until they're willing to talk and reveal their scheme and tell us why they are trying to break in here by impersonating Potter and his little friends," Draco said coldly.

And so the group was marched down to the cellar under the drawing room to join Luna and Ollivander. They scrambled to cut their bonds with an old nail, while listening to a conversation held topside. Apparently Draco wanted to question the prisoners himself, Narcissa thought it too dangerous, Bellatrix didn't trust him and was suspicious, and Lucius said to let Draco go. They paused in their actions, Ron jumping to put his light back in his deluminator, as they heard the trapdoor squeak open once again. That was followed by the sound of footsteps on the hard stone and the faint light of a wand. Then Draco was there on the other side of the bars.

"Hold tight and don't cause any trouble; I'll come back after everyone's asleep to let you go," Draco whispered. Now that he was closer to the bars, it was clear he hadn't brought the baby with him.

"Why?" was all Harry could ask.

"I'll explain everything then, just go along with my ruse for now.

"Pretend to fight," Hermione whispered.

"What?" Draco asked.

"We could hear you, so they should be able to hear us!" Hermione hissed. "They might get suspicious if they don't hear you fighting."

"What makes you think I'm going to tell you anything, you pompous little prick!?" Harry shouted, catching on.

"The _real_ Harry Potter would _never_ talk like that!" Draco shouted back.

"How would you know? You haven't got two brain cells to rub together!" Harry retorted.

"This is pointless. I hope you rot in here; perhaps you'll be more willing to talk tomorrow," Draco said, before turning on his heal and ascending the staircase.

Once the trapdoor was heard closing behind Draco, the friends returned to getting their ropes severed. They could hear an argument upstairs in which Draco insisted that further questioning was useless, while Bellatrix wanted to torture answers out of the prisoners. Ultimately the baby started crying, Lucius said it was his house, and Bellatrix and the snatchers were ordered out. The snatchers were paid the standard rewards for delinquent students and told to be happy with that, after falling for the ruse and leading the enemy into Malfoy Manor.

It was hours before the voices upstairs died down and the inhabitants of the house went to sleep. Long after the house went quiet there was still no sign of Draco and Harry began to think that Draco had lied to them. Then they heard footsteps, the squeak of the hatch, and the sound of someone descending the stairs. Draco appeared by the gate, once again carrying the baby, this time on his shoulder. Even more oddly, he was patting the baby on the back and quietly singing a tune, "Over the Hills and Far Away; the dragon shall scorch my wizard's cap off."

"Malfoy!" Ron called out, the first to see the shadowy figure in the dim light coming in from one small window. He'd long since put away the light for the night.

"Draco?" Harry asked tiredly, standing up from where he'd been resting his chin on his knees and walking to the gate. "I was starting to think you weren't coming."

"I had to wait until Leo woke up so they wouldn't notice me coming downstairs," Draco explained, continuing to pat the baby's back.

"Leo?" Harry asked.

"I had to name him something that reminded me of you, so that they wouldn't think twice about him being yours. He's not you know; yours that is."

"Then why? How?" Harry asked.

"Harry, I wish to speak with you alone. Do I have your permission to cast a privacy spell?" Draco asked and Harry agreed. He cast a muffliato, to prevent the others from hearing.

"It's done, now tell me what's going on," Harry insisted.

"The Dark Lord gave me two assignments to carry out last year. One, as you know, was to kill Dumbledore."

"Which you weren't able to do on your own," Harry interjected.

"Yes, well, it got done; that's the important thing. My other assignment was to seduce you and get myself pregnant with your baby. That, of course, goes against everything I believe in as a Malfoy, so I didn't do it." Draco paused here for a minute. "But I had to do something; I couldn't refuse to his face." Another pause. "I got myself pregnant without you and told the Dark Lord I'd done it. I took a single hair from one of our fights and with it, I performed a bit of black magic to make my son the spitting image of you; that's why he looks like you. The Dark Lord thinks he's yours. He plans to use my Leo to lure you into a trap. When he's ready, he'll reveal the fact he has your son and force you to come running to save Leo. Only Leo isn't yours and he doesn't know that.

"Leo, is, however, mine," Draco continued. "I'm letting you go to protect him. If the Dark Lord were to find out I lied and that he isn't yours, Leo will be dead. He'd _murder_ my baby. I _can't_ let that happen. I _won't _hand over my baby. And if he somehow gets my Leo and sets his little trap, you _better_ rescue _my son, Potter_." Harry's name was spit like venom. "If you don't, I will _personally track you down and murder you myself_. Is that clear?"

"Not entirely. I must say I'm still confused by the fact you have a child at all, Malfoy."

"I was pregnant already that night on the tower."

Male pregnancy was known in the wizarding world, but it wasn't something often talked about. It was considered rude to talk about it in public and Harry had never taken the time to read up on it, so he didn't know how it was possible. He did, however, know that it wasn't impossible.

"So you are willing to let me and my friends go in order to protect the kid, huh?"

"You have to take them all with you—they're witnesses—they have to go." Draco pointed to the old man.

"Well yes, I wouldn't leave without any of them."

"Good. Now these wands came with you lot from the snatchers," Draco reached with his free hand into his robes pocket and pulled out a bundle of wands. "I trust that if I lower the anti-apparition wards you will all be able to apparate out of here."

"Yes," Harry answered, grateful for a way out.

"And I have your word that none of you will attempt to hurt me or my son on your way out?"

"Yes."

"And that you, Harry Potter, will do everything in your power to protect my son."

"Yes."

Draco took some time to consider Harry's promise, before saying, "Not good enough; I require the Unbreakable Vow."

"What do I have to vow?"

"To protect my son with your life."

"This could be a trap."  
"I already told you it was."

"And yet you still expect me to pledge my life for your son?"

"If you aren't willing to do it, then you cannot possibly be the real Harry Potter. Perhaps I should let my Aunt Bella in to question you after all…" Draco took a step back, as if he was going to leave.

"No, I'll do it," Harry said desperately. "But you have to vow to do your best to keep him out of harm's way."

"I'd never give my son over to him. The fact that he expects that of me shows that he has no understanding of what it means to be a pureblood."

"Then you'll agree?" Harry asked.

"If you will?"

"Yes."

"I'll cancel the muffliato spell and you get the mudblood to cast the vow."

"Wait."

"Yes?" Draco asked.

"Come with us. We'll protect you and the baby. If you're worried about your parents, we'll protect them too. The middle of this war is no place for a baby to be."

"It isn't ideal, that's for sure, but we've been safe hiding in plain sight so far. Although, that probably won't be the case once they find out I let you lot go. After you are gone, I'll gather my parents and tell them it's time to leave. My father has a safe house ready for us. Now will you agree to the bond or not?"

Harry agreed and it was done. He had to plead with Hermione to go along with it, but they really didn't have time to hash it all out. In the end he'd begged her to trust him and she had. With her own wand, which Draco had given back to her, she cast a two-way Unbreakable Vow in which both Harry and Draco promised to protect little Leo Malfoy.

Once it was done, Draco gave Harry one last piece of advice, getting close to Harry in order to minimize knowledge of his betrayal of the Dark Lord. The baby came in contact with Harry's arm in the process and a slobber covered hand reached out and smacked Harry's neck as Draco whispered directly into Harry's ear, "Whatever it is they are hiding or protecting or whatever, it is in my Aunt's vault at Gringotts. The Lestrange family vault in the oldest section of the bank and it's guarded by a blind dragon." Then he left the rest of the wands on the ground and disappeared back up the stairs with the baby.

Hermione summoned the other wands and handed them out. They paired up and disapparated to Shell Cottage, escaping from Malfoy Manor without a single casualty, the Sword of Gryffindor safe in Hermione's purse, which was tucked into her sock all along; there was no reason to take it out and they hadn't been foolishly polishing it when Harry said the name. And best of all, they now had a clue to the location of the next Horcrux.

* * *

Author's Note: There is just this one AU chapter of the war. Next the story jumps to after the war where the meat of the story takes place. Please Review!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: I changed the title of the story; I like this one better. This is still the same story previous titled Ginny Weasley versus the Dragon and his Hatchling. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

* * *

"Harry, there's a wizard in the square outside," Ginny said, peering out the drawing room window of Grimmauld Place, holding the curtains open as Harry returned fresh from the loo. They had been hanging out earlier, just enjoying each other's company, until nature called.

The war was over and a sense of hope and celebration was intermingled in the summer air with the sense of loss, from all of the witches, wizards, and muggles who died in the war. But it was finally in the past, and the knowledge that Harry had once and for all defeated Lord Voldemort was a great relief to all. Narcissa Malfoy hadn't been there to lie for him in the Forbidden Forest, but the incompetent Peter Pettigrew mistakenly pronounced him dead and Hagrid was ordered to carry the body up to the castle. In the end, Voldemort had the Elder wand, but the wand still owed it's allegiance to Draco Malfoy. Because Draco shared a bidirectional unbreakable vow with Harry, the wand choose Harry over Voldemort. The powerful Dark Lord was defeated with a simple Expelliarmus and a rebounding Avada Kedavra.

"Who is it?" Harry asked, coming to stand behind her and look over her shoulder.

"Don't know."

"Then how do you know it's a wizard? Could be a muggle." Taking in the silhouette with a young child on the hip, he amended, "Could be a regular mum or dad out with their kid."

"Yeah, except for the impervious charm keeping them dry, instead of an umbrella."

It had been rainy almost every day for the last month and today wasn't any different. Whole hordes of Dementors were being destroyed every day, but the chill, gloom, and mist they bred lingered all the more in the air as the spectral corpses dissipated. The rain combined with the summer heat to produce stifling humidity half the time, although today it was just bearably warm with the wet.

Come to mention it, neither humanoid figure carried an umbrella, despite the circular-shaped dry ring around their location. The adult was tall and slender, possibly trying to shield the child from the rain as the body bowed over the child's. A muggle probably would've worn a long trench coat in this weather, but this person couldn't have been wearing more than a sweater. "Right, who do you think it is?"

Ginny shrugged and said, "It better not be a reporter."

Harry let out a huff, indicating his annoyance at the thought. "Well whoever it is, they've got a kid, so I can't leave 'em out there."

And then Harry, his wand in hand, was trotting down the stairs of the old house, past the house elf heads on the wall and the portrait of Sirius' mum in the hallway. He grabbed his umbrella from the troll-leg stand by the doorway and flung open the door, opening the umbrella to cover his head as he stepped out onto the front step. He walked down the three stairs and stood on the path, knowing that that was the limit of the Fidelius. Whoever the mysterious guest was, he or she would now be able to see him.

The figure continued to stare off into space for a minute, not noticing Harry immediately. That pissed him off, because it was wet and windy out and he wasn't dressed for this. He cast an impervious of his own along with a drying charm, to deal with the rain the wind blew past his umbrella, and that seemed to draw the other person's attention. The head snapped around in his direction, going past him for an instant, before turning back to look at him. Whoever it was straightened up, before walking forwards.

The first feature Harry noticed as the pair grew nearer was the greyish gleam of blond hair in the gloom. Then he realized that the child really was quite young, just a baby covered in a blanket, and far too little to be dragged out in weather like this. As he was mentally chastising the parent, the features of Draco Malfoy came into focus. Draco was still using his body to shield the child as much as possible from the wind, the impervious charm traveling with them and blocking out the rain from their immediate vicinity. It wasn't until they were right in front of Harry that he could see a bit of black hair through a gap as the blanket shifted and assumed that it was the same Baby Leo he'd seen before at Malfoy Manor.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Harry asked, eyes darting back and forth between Draco and Leo, implying that Draco was a bad parent for having the child out in weather like this.

A gust of warm soggy air hit them, hair blowing into eyes. Draco blinked, shook off the few droplets of water that passed through the impervious charm, and brushed his damp hair out of his face. "Let me in," he ordered, eyes darting between Harry and the blanket covering Leo, as if implying that Harry _had_ to let him in, because of the child.

Harry huffed and held out his hand for Draco to take, knowing that as one of the many Secret Keepers, physical contact would be the quickest way to get the pair past the Fidelius.

Draco took Harry's hand and allowed himself to be led into the house. He followed Harry past Ginny, who was standing in the hallway, down the rear staircase, and into the kitchen. He sat on the hard wooden bench with his child in his lap, flinging the damp blanket onto the table to reveal the relatively dry figure underneath.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked again, chucking the umbrella into Kreacher's waiting arms. The elf would put it back for him.

Draco cast drying and warming charms on both himself and his baby. "Leo and I just returned today from our safe house in Austria, only to find that the Ministry won't let us into the Manor. Apparently they are investigating. Austria is a bit far for return travel with the baby," Draco said, implying that Harry _had _to take them in in their hour of need. "That's where we went after letting your lot escape, you know, to Austria. We packed up that night and made it look like we were captured and taken hostage after prisoners escaped from the cellar."

"Where are your parents?" Ginny asked.

"Still in Austria. My father wasn't entirely certain he'd be welcome and my parents don't hate it there the way I do. Why are _you_ here?" Draco asked in return.

"I _live_ here now," Ginny answered. It wasn't entirely true. Technically she was just visiting. She wasn't quite yet seventeen, so she still lived with her parents at the Burrow until the start of her Seventh year. But it was Harry's house and as his girlfriend, she felt entitled to the place, even if her parents weren't okay with her spending the night without Ron and Hermione present.

Ron and Hermione were currently off to Australia on a mission to restore her parents' memories. She had wiped all trace of herself from their memory in an effort to protect them before the war. Now that the war was over, she wanted them back. Returning memories was a complicated and dangerous process, but without the threat of Voldemort hanging over their heads, they could seek help from the proper authorities. A trained mind healer just might be able to put the missing memories back without causing permanent brain damage to the pair of muggles.

"Is he okay," Harry asked, indicating the baby, who hadn't moved.

"He's asleep, no thanks to you. Just how long were you planning on leaving us out on your bloody stoop?" Draco asked indignantly, as if he expected Harry to know he was there sooner.

"How was I to know you were there? You didn't even bother to owl," Harry replied, crossing his arms over his chest defensively, wand still in hand.

"I couldn't knock with that curse you've put on the place, now could I? I wouldn't even have been able to find it, if I hadn't already been here before. And I didn't exactly bring an owl back with me on my transcontinental journey. Excuse me for limiting the nappy bag to, oh I don't know…nappies," Draco said with a sneer. The fact that he hadn't been to Grimmauld Place since he was a kid hadn't made finding the missing townhouse any easier. But he had known the street name and once outside, he recognized the general region where his great aunt's house had been.

"Are they staying, Harry?" Ginny asked, turning to her boyfriend.

Harry looked at Ginny, before looking back at Draco and the child. "Do you have anywhere else to go, Malfoy?" he asked.

"No," Draco replied firmly. He didn't know whether that was strictly true or not, because he hadn't bothered looking up any of his friends; most were locked up or on the run, but some of them were probably still around. He'd gone to the Manor first and when turned away, had decided Harry was going to take them in, without considering other options.

"Well then I guess they're staying," Harry answered Ginny.

There was a moment more of dithering about, broken by another scathing rebuke from Draco, "Are you going to show us to our rooms or are you going to leave me to hold the sleeping infant all night?"

Harry didn't miss the presumption. He rubbed the back of his neck, grumbled to himself, and then proceeded to lead the Malfoys upstairs. He whispered to Ginny on the third floor landing, trying to decide where to put them, but Draco solved the problem for them by nosing around into each of the rooms and choosing the one he liked best. Draco marked his territory with his sleeping child in a portable cot and a golden snitch covered nappy bag on the bed. Already knowing the layout of the house, Draco strolled down to the drawing room on the second floor and sat down in the armchair like he owned the place.

Ginny and Harry followed after, stopping on the landing right outside the drawing room. She eyed him, he eyed her back, and she upped the ante by silently waving in Draco's direction and bugging out her eyes, to indicate that _he_ was to do something. He sighed, but turned and headed into the drawing room, pausing in the doorway to stare incredulously at the unwanted visitor who had made himself at home.

"This place is rather shabby, eh Potter?" Draco asked with a sneer. "It's worse than my great aunt's stale armpits when she went in for a hug. I am not pleased to see that you have kept everything exactly the way she left it."

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Malfoy?" Harry snapped, his aggravation getting the best of him.

"Oi, watch your language, Potter! Or have you forgotten that there are children in the house." Draco's eyes flickered from Harry to the hall, back to Harry, then to Ginny, before finally settling back on Harry, as if to indicate just who the other child was. He of course ignored his own earlier cuss word and acted as if Harry was the only guilty one.

Ginny didn't miss the insult. She screamed and launched herself at Draco. It was only thanks to Harry's seeker's reflexes that he managed to grab her and hold her back. She was loud enough to wake the baby in the room directly overhead, who let out a loud, piercing wail.

"Now look what you've done, Weasley!" Draco rose, ducking under Harry and Ginny to gain the hallway. As he headed upstairs in the direction of the bedroom, he called over his shoulder in a derisive tone, "And I thought all Weasleys were meant to be good with children."

Needless to say, Ginny was rather angry at Draco. Harry was too, but there was the baby to think about. The soft sound of Draco's singing a lullaby could soon be heard, implying that he once again had the child in his arms. There would be no tackling him as long as the baby was in the way, so it was up to Harry to calm Ginny down.

Several minutes later found Harry and Ginny cuddled on the sofa together, Harry stroking her vivid red hair and saying, "Merlin I can't wait to marry you. We can have our own raven haired green eyed babies." He'd just got done explaining to her what he knew of Draco and Leo; she hadn't missed the similarities between him and the baby or the implications of that.

"Over my dead body. If you think I'm going to be your little tart on the side and raise your children in silence while you go off and marry someone else, you've got another thing coming, _Harry_. Your cock is good, but not _that_ good. I don't care how many Dark Lords you've slain," Draco lied smoothly from the doorway, interrupting.

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" Harry asked exasperated. He was going to have to cast a silencing charm and _then_ kill this git, so as not to wake the baby.

"You've not told her, have you?" Draco asked, looking from Harry, to Ginny, and back to Harry.

Ginny's jaw was still dropped from Draco's first statement. She picked it back up slowly and asked, "Told me what?"

"That we've been sleeping together since sixth year. That that's his baby in the other room. And that he only started going out with you, to hide the fact that he was fucking me," Draco said with a sneer.

Ginny's face had a look of betrayal on it. She ran forward and slapped Draco across the face on her way out. Harry looked back angrily at Draco as he ran after her. He was too late though and she disappeared through the kitchen floo, her destination of home echoing through the room.

Harry decided to go after Ginny later, once he knew what Draco's problem was. He stalked his way back up the stairs, throwing a silencing spell in the direction of the baby, as he cornered Draco. Draco had been relaxing casually in the armchair in the drawing room, but rose and countered Harry's angry stance with a smirk.

"What the _fuck_ is your problem, Malfoy?"

"Just what I said: I've had your baby and I won't be playing second fiddle while you run off and marry some skirt. I expect Leo to be taken care of and not to be cheated out of his inheritance. And I _won't_ be playing step-father to a bunch of Weasley-children either, so you can just get that out of your head now."

"Leo is _not_ my son."

"That's not what his birth certificate states."

"Well I'll contest it."

"Which will be a colossal waste of time and money, because the paternity test will prove he is."

"You said yourself, _Malfoy_, that he isn't mine."

"I lied." Draco said, his smirk becoming even more pronounced, contorting the red hand-shaped mark forming on his face.

"That's not possible."

"It is. I had to use dark magic to do it, but with the Dark Lord threatening to kill me if I didn't, I hardly think I'll be punished for it.

"But you said you only used the curse to make him _look_ like me," Harry pleaded, feeling desperate to prove Draco wrong.

"Making him biologically yours had that effect, didn't it? I had to lie to someone. It was either you or the Dark Lord." Draco shrugged. "I chose you. Can you blame me? The Dark Lord would have found out the lie and killed us both. I couldn't risk it; not with him," Draco said, motioning with his chin in the direction of the upper bedroom, where Leo once again slept.

The truth of that statement hit Harry like a load of bricks and he sagged backwards, stumbling into the sofa. He sat down, the fight gone from him. "I don't want to share a child with you, Malfoy."

"The feeling is mutual. I thought about letting you sign over your parental rights to me, but I decided against it. It's not fair to him and I won't let you off that easy. He deserves two parents. I created him to buy _you_ time to defeat the Dark Lord; now that you've done it, I won't have you casting him aside."

"You created him to save your own skin," Harry accused bitingly.

"And yours. The Dark Lord never would have been so lenient on all those blood traitor friends of yours if he didn't think he had you right where he wanted you. While you were out hiding in the forest or whatever it was you were doing, he was setting the trap for you. And all the while, _I_ was assuring him that I had Leo right there, ready to act as bait. I risked _my_ son's life for your cause. I even told you where one of those _things_ were."

"Why?" Harry asked, suddenly perplexed. Draco wasn't on their side, so he couldn't think of a reason why Draco would risk Leo's life like that.

Draco huffed in frustration, throwing up his hands, and looking away. A minute later, he looked back at Harry with his answer. "Because he was crazy! I knew he was mental the moment he asked it of me! I didn't know what I was going to do, but in the end I didn't see any other choice than to give in and do what he wanted. My father wasn't here to help me, thanks to you and your bloody friends. At first I was only stalling, but once my father was returned to us, it was decided that we would help you. Everyone knew that you were the one who had to defeat him."

"How old is the kid?" Harry asked, changing the subject, because he didn't know what to say to Draco's confession. If Leo really was his, he wasn't going to turn his back on his son, even if that meant sharing Leo with Draco.

"Four months. I wasn't going to do it, but then after you almost killed me in that bathroom, I decided you owed me."

"So how long are you planning on staying here?"

"Until the Ministry gives me back my house. One of those Auror wankers threatened me with seizing it for war crimes. You best go down and straighten that out or I'll be forced to inform the papers that the Ministry is planning on seizing property from Potter Junior."

Harry's breath hitched in his throat when he heard those last few words. "Did you give him my name, then?"

"Yes, I told you, I named him _Leo_."

"Leo Potter?"

"No, don't be stupid, Potter. I named him Leo Draco Malfoy; I _told_ you that last time I saw you." Draco had not in fact told Harry the middle name, but the last name had been given in the Unbreakable Vow.

"Oh," Harry said disappointed.

"Now look here Potter, just because he doesn't have your last name doesn't mean he's any less yours. He doesn't look a stitch like me, so the least he could have is my last name. I even gave him a bloody Gryffindor name. With a name like that, he might just end up being one, Salazar forbid." Draco said it as if Leo becoming a Gryffindor was the worst thing in the world.

"So what if he is?" Harry asked defensively, but all Draco did was shrug, which let the fight out of Harry's anger.

They sat in silence for several minutes and were interrupted once again by the sound of an infant's cries from the bedroom. Draco went to tend the baby and Harry followed, staying back.

Harry watched attentively as Draco dug into the nappy bag with one hand, holding Leo against his shoulder with the other. "Do you have everything he needs? I could send Kreacher out," he offered.

"Yes, Potter. I'm not stupid enough to travel across continent without the essentials," Draco replied, his voice biting. He pulled a u-shaped pillow out of a nappy bag that looked too small to hold it, tossing it next to him on the bed. Then he propped himself up on the bed, positioning the pillow on his lap and Leo sideways on top of it. He went to grab the hem of the vest he was wearing, but then stopped to look up at Harry. "Do you mind, Potter?" Trouser, shirts, and vests hadn't always been part of his typical wardrobe, but he couldn't exactly wear robes and be pulling them off every three hours.

"No…" Harry replied, not getting Draco's message.

"Then get out. I'm going to feed him now and you're not getting the peep show."

Harry's ears and cheeks flamed up in a shade of purple worthy of Ron. He backed out of the room, hands up blocking the image of Draco and Leo from his eyes. He retreated to the drawing room sofa, where he waited for the better part of an hour, before Draco emerged again. This time he had the baby and the nappy bag with him.

"Pull the swing out of there, will you," Draco asked, throwing the bag into Harry's lap.

Being a standard sized nappy bag, it looked far too small to contain a swing and even if it did, Harry didn't know how to set one up. "Can't I take the baby instead?"

"No, what if you drop him? The swing at least is charmed to withstand impacts."

Sighing in defeat, Harry admitted to himself that he did have almost zero experience with babies, since he'd seen Teddy all of twice. He reached into the bag, discovering that it was seemingly endless. It was similar to reaching into Hermione's beaded handbag with the Undetectable Extension charm on it. Thus he pulled out his wand and summoned the swing, which popped out of the much too small hole and positioned itself squarely on the floor in front of him.

"You are not entirely useless then," Draco conceded, plowing Harry gently out of the way so that he could maneuver Leo into the contraption. Once the baby was locked in and the swing was spelled on, complete with lights and music, he retreated to the armchair, letting Harry reclaim the position in front of the swing.

Draco watched Harry watching the baby for several minutes, Harry fascinated with his little doppelganger. Leo was awake, his eyes open, his little pink lips smiling, and his arms waving happily in front of him to the motion of the swing. Draco interrupted the moment by asking, "Is Weasley coming back soon?"

"No, probably not…"

"It's getting late; I thought she lives here."

"That was an exaggeration. She's gone home and since Ron and Hermione are off in Australia, her mum and dad wouldn't let her stay over tonight anyway. I'll try to talk to her tomorrow, but after what you said to her…" Harry said with a shrug.

"Good, keep her away. I won't have her touching Leo."

"Malfoy!" Harry replied angrily, trying and partially failing to keep his voice down. Leo noticed and his little face scrunched up, before he started fussing.

"I don't even trust _you_, Potter, to touch him, so I certainly won't be letting Weasley touch him, now will I? The both of you are far too temperamental," Draco said pushing Harry out of the way, so that Leo would see him and not Harry. "There, there. That ugly wizard is gone and it's just Father here now." As he spoke soothingly, he stilled the swing, before reaching in and stroking the baby's cheek with one hand and patting the little tummy with the other. Leo stopped fussing, so Draco started the swing going again, but didn't give the position back to Harry.

Raising his hands up in defeat, Harry retreated to the nearby sofa, where he still had a decent view of the baby. Draco always managed to rile him up and he knew he would have to work on his temper around the baby. It wasn't Leo's fault that his father was an arse. The baby was clearly already attached to Draco, so Harry would have to play by Draco's rules. For now.

Draco lowered himself to his knees in front of the swing and started talking to the baby in a soft, lilting voice; only it wasn't English. "Dein PaPa ist ein Dummkopf, süßer Löwe," he said in a language Harry didn't know. Since he had claimed to have gone to Austria, Harry figured it must be Austrian. The word PaPa Harry recognized, thinking Draco had pronounced it the way the British upper class do, but he didn't know which of Leo's two dads Draco was referring to.

Draco continued to speak to the baby in the other language and even more unbelievably, Harry soon realized that he was speaking in a nursery rhyme or limerick of some kind. Then he switched to English and sang in a pleasant and clear voice, "Hush Little Baby, don't you cry. Father's going to buy you a fiery phoenix. And if that phoenix doesn't sing, Father's going to buy you an emerald ring. And if that ring is blasted by an erumpent, Father's going to buy you a great green serpent. And if that serpent doesn't slighter, Father's going to buy you a house elf all a dither. And if that elf doesn't come hither, then Father's going to buy you an owl all a twitter. Hush little baby, don't you cry." He sang it an octave lower than a woman would, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Transfixed by how sweet Draco seemed to be with the baby, Harry sat back and watched until Draco finished. If this was what Draco was like with Leo, then maybe this situation wouldn't be so bad after all. _At least not for Leo. Malfoy will probably still be a pain in the arse with me_, Harry thought.

"Potter?" Draco asked, a few minutes after finishing his lullaby.

"Yes?" Harry asked warily. It was quickly growing into a very long day.

"I need to eat on a regular basis to provide milk for your son. Is that house elf of yours ever going to announce supper, or is he as useless as you?" Draco asked.

Harry didn't know whether to blush about the milk part, chastise himself for not offering Draco something to eat sooner, or rip Draco's head off over the insult. He settled for gritting his teeth and saying, "If you're hungry, all you have to do is ask and he'll make you something."

"The elf doesn't automatically make supper every night? What, do you not eat every day?"

"No, but other people aren't here every day. When Ginny, Ron, and Hermione are over, he knows to cook, but otherwise, if it's just me, I like to fix myself a sandwich on my own." Harry shrugged. Kreacher would've made something on his own, if Ginny had stayed, but he probably didn't realize that Draco was staying.

"Right. And what is your elf's name, since I must put in a request for my food."

"Kreacher," Harry answered.

A moment later there was a loud pop and the elf in question appeared. Draco asked to be brought a snack immediately and ordered a large meal. Kreacher was only too happy to comply, dropping his nose to the floor in a sweeping bow; his only question whether or not Harry would be joining this impromptu meal, to which Harry agreed.

Draco ate the biscuits and chugged down the pumpkin juice Kreacher brought him like he was starving. Then he said, "Well since your elf is just now barely starting on supper, I should probably give Leo his bath while we wait. Care to help?"

That sounded like the nicest thing out of Draco's mouth all day, so Harry approved the idea, thinking he might finally be allowed to hold his son. His hopes were temporally dashed though, when Draco instructed him to retrieve the infant tub and other bathing supplies from the nappy bag. He played the role of a servant, pouring water from his wand into the tub and warming it up to the perfect temperature. Then he kneeled at Draco's side, handing over baby soap and ringing out baby washcloths when necessary.

As they worked, Draco hummed a baby tune which Harry recognized as The False Night Upon the Road. He seemed to have an instinct for ducking out of the way at precisely the right moments, leaving Harry to be caught by Leo's splashing.

The bath finished, Draco took to drying the baby off, while instructing Harry to find a fresh set of clothes from the nappy bag. And Draco didn't want just anything for Leo to wear, having a set of blue pajamas covered in baby dragons in mind, which forced Harry to sift through quite a bit of clothing to find the right ones. He finally found it just in the nick of time, Draco putting the final touches on Leo's fresh nappy.

Once Leo was properly dressed again, Draco retired with him to the armchair. "Clean all of this up, Potter," he directed, before setting about to play with the baby.

Harry glared murder at Draco, tired of being used for a servant. He was just about to put his foot down when Leo started laughing at the silly voice Draco was making at the baby. The baby's laugh was intoxicating as it bounced off of the walls with a tinkling sound. Draco wasn't just being a useless blob, but tending to their child. And if Draco was making Leo that happy, who was Harry to complain? Thus he grumbled to himself and did as told.

Kreacher announced dinner a short while later. This time Draco ordered Harry to retrieve Leo's chair from the nappy bag, proving that he had brought a ridiculous amount of baby stuff with him, which was now being strewn all over Grimmauld Place. It wasn't a highchair that came, but a little infant seat that was placed on top of the table with the baby in it, while they ate. Both adults looked over at the baby frequently during the meal, but Leo was soon asleep again.

This time when Leo cried, Draco had his hands full shoveling down his dessert rapidly. Harry wasn't all that hungry and hadn't bothered with dessert, instead waiting for Draco to finish to see what the next request was going to be. Thus he was quicker about standing up and peering down over the baby in response to the fussing noises. He reached out a shaky hand to pat the little tummy as he'd seen Draco do earlier and said, "There, there. What's wrong little guy?"  
Draco swallowed a bite of pie and answered, "He's hungry. It's his feeding time, which is why I normally eat earlier than this."

"Well tell your daddy to give his schedule to Kreacher and we won't have this problem again," Harry replied to the baby, still patting the little stomach, but aiming the words at Draco.

"I'm his father," Draco clarified, in between additional bites of food, which he swallowed fully before continuing. "I've been referring to you as PaPa or occasionally the Speccy Scar-Headed Git." Again, PaPa was said in that annoyingly upper class lilt that only a snobbish git like Draco could pull off without sounding like an utter tosser. Strike that, even he sounded like a tosser saying it.

Realizing that he wasn't in the process of being fed, Leo picked up the screams, creating an ear-shattering sound that made both adults cringe.

"Alright, I'm coming. Unstrap him, Potter," Draco said, quickly cleaning his hands with a spell before getting up.

Harry did as told and moved out of the way, so that Draco could take the baby. The two Malfoys moved up the stairs, hiding away in the bedroom for an hour. Harry moved to the drawing room to wait, thinking about what had transpired that day and all of the things he needed to discuss with Draco.

When Draco finally returned, it was without the baby. Thus Harry's first question was, "Where's the baby?"

"Asleep for the night," Draco said, resuming his earlier position in the armchair.

"Good." There was a long pause and then Harry said, "I don't like the way you're treating me, Malfoy. This is my house and I won't have you insulting me in front of my son."

"Fine Potter, we'll be out of your hair and on the first portkey back to bloody Austria in the morning."

"That's not what I mean, Malfoy. You can stay here, but can you stop being an arse for one minute?"

"And here I was thinking I was being exceedingly kind to let you touch my son earlier. I even let you help with his bath."

"Ergh! Why do you have to be such an annoying git? You used me like a servant during his bath."

"Well how are you supposed to learn, if you don't watch first? Babies are slippery when wet."

"What about when he was dry and you didn't let me hold him?"

"Do you have experience I don't know about with babies?"

"No…not much. But I did hold Teddy twice. He's a lot littler than Leo and I didn't drop him."

"Well invite this Teddy over and prove it. Excuse me for not immediately handing an infant over to someone who I thought had never seen one before."

"So does that mean you'll let me hold Leo?"

Draco looked up to the ceiling in exasperation, before answering, "Yes, but not until I trust you know what you're doing."

"And what exactly do I have to do to prove myself to you?"  
"I was just going to make you watch and take notes for a few weeks, but if there is someone out there actually willing to let you practice on their innocent child, then you can do that."

"So if I call Dromeda to come over with Teddy tomorrow, you'll let me hold Leo?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Sitting down, while properly supervise, yes, provided you can show proper holding technique with this Teddy. But don't expect me to let you walk around with him or bathe him or anything."

Harry decided that was good enough for now. Then he set about writing a letter to Tonks' mum and inviting her and Teddy over tomorrow. He'd also have to see about visiting Ginny tomorrow and explaining what was going on. Hopefully she would realize it was Draco and know that it wasn't true. Come to think of it, he didn't trust Draco not to pull something along the same lines with Dromeda; he figured that he should probably invite her over to the Burrow first to explain. Thus he wrote a letter addressed to the Weasleys with his request and letting Ginny know that he was coming over to explain. And since he didn't have an owl, he sent Kreacher to deliver the letters.

When Harry set down his quill, Draco interjected, "Potter," and waited for Harry to look up at him.

"Yes?"

"You know I want you to be in Leo's life, right? That was the whole point of our argument earlier; that I wasn't going to let you abandon him, because that's not fair to him. I was honestly going to let you hold him, as soon as I trust you to know what to do." For once Draco spoke plainly and possibly honestly.

"Yes, alright," Harry conceded, starting to think he'd overreacted earlier. Draco's heart seemed to be in the right place; it was just Draco's tongue he wanted to sever.

"And around him, I have tried to refrain from insulting you as much as possible. I want to keep his environment positive and pleasant. It was only seeing you again that made me fall back into insulting you; I will resume my previous attempts to refer to you only as PaPa."

"Thanks, but could you call me something less pretentious? Like papa, the way normal people say it, or even dad. What's wrong with daddy?" Harry asked.

"It's plebian and I refuse. You can be PaPa or you can be the Speccy Scar-Headed Git. Your choice."

"Look, I don't want to argue with you. If you've already gotten used to PaPa, I guess I could be PaPa. I want a healthy environment for him too," Harry conceded. He figured he could work on his name later. If Leo started calling him dad one day, then the issue would settle itself.

"That's why I asked an attorney to draw up some papers for us." As Draco spoke, he retrieved a thick stack of parchments from the nappy bag. "You don't have to sign these, but if you don't, I will take you to court and to the best of my ability, force you to be a proper parent to our son. This is a custody agreement. It just says that he'll live with me, but that you will visit with him on weekends; every weekend. For now I will have to come with, but when he's older, _if_ you have shown proper judgment with regards to him, then he could stay with you."

"Really? You're willing to give me visitation?" Harry asked, pleasantly surprised.

"Yes. How else are you to take responsibility for our son?"

"Okay, I guess that makes sense. This stack is really thick. Is custody really all this says? It sure seems to take a lot of paper to say I'll have him on weekends."

"No, it's not just custody. My lawyer seems to think that before you can have visitation, you must first acknowledge that he's yours in the first place. The writ of paternity is that gibberish on top that I don't really understand myself. From what I understood, if you acknowledge paternity, you are also giving Leo the right to inherit from you and me the right to collect child support on his behalf. That part doesn't say how much child support or visitation; we have to file separate forms for that. This last page, here," as Draco spoke, he pulled away the last piece of parchment and handed it over to Harry, "is so the courts can determine how much child support you should pay. I have to fill one out too."

"Alright, that seems fair. And the visitation?"

"That's the second half. There's some liability stuff saying that if you prove yourself to be an unfit parent, by let's say, chasing after Dark Lords with Leo in tow, this visitation agreement will become null and void. But other than that, it just says what I said about you visiting him on weekends. I figured weekends would be best for you, but if for some reason you want him on some other two days, I would agree to it."

"Seriously? You're willing to be this nice about it?"

"Yes, I am."

"Wow. I thought with the way you were acting like an arse earlier…" Harry waved his hands in the air.

"Well I won't be so lenient once he's in school, but for now it's not that big a deal. I want what is best for my son."

"Alright, talk me through this and I'll sign," Harry concluded and Draco did. There were parts of the legal jargon neither of them understood, but for the most part the documents seemed to be precisely what Draco said they were; a writ of paternity and a custody agreement.

* * *

Author's Note: It is not my intention to make either Draco or Ginny evil in this story, merely equally flawed. Harry too will have his flaws and be faced with the choice between the two. It will be a question of which set of flaws he can live with and which of the two he really wants. You can expect to see both Draco and Ginny behaving badly, but if either of them starts to become too unlikeable, please let me know. I want to straddle the line, not fall into character bashing.

Please Review!


	3. Chapter 3

Harry slept like shit that night, in part due to Leo's midnight feedings. Both times he was awoken he cast a silencing charm and went back to bed. When he did sleep, he had a horrible dream about a horde of people mobbing him and stealing his hairs, so that they could all have his baby too, creating a sea of his clones. He woke sweating and sleepily promised himself that in the morning he'd find a way to make sure no one could ever do whatever Draco did again. Only he went back to sleep and completely forgot about it by morning.

Harry felt like a zombie the next morning and had a whole new appreciation for Draco. Despite getting up with a crying baby twice in the night, Draco was seemingly functional the next morning, if somewhat cranky. Harry figured the bad mood was related to the sever lack of sleep and resolved to be more lenient about it; that lasted until Draco opened his mouth.

"Do you have anything healthy in this house at all?" Draco asked, eyeing his plate of bacon and eggs like it was going to stop his heart dead with one bite.

"This is healthy," Harry muttered groggily in return, bacon in one hand, fork in the other.

"I get that you've been basically living on your own with a group of teenagers for months now, but surely you must remember what a _healthy_ breakfast actually is. I haven't seen a fruit or vegetable since I arrived here. Or did you just ignore those particular food groups on the house tables at school?"

If Harry was honest with himself, he never did a lot of eating either food group. If Molly, Hermione, or Kreacher cooked them, he ate it, but after growing up with the Dursleys, he'd gotten used to eating a lot of heavy foods composed of mostly meats and grains. "What did you want for breakfast?" he asked petulantly, violently jabbing his slice of bacon into the runny yoke of his egg.

"Some sort of cereal, porridge, or oatmeal with fruit; possibly some curds and whey on the side."

"Porridge, curds, and whey? Seriously Malfoy? You sound like a children's fairy tale."

"Well maybe there is a reason why characters in fairy tales eat breakfast foods in the morning, Potter, you great tit."

Harry was about to retort that bacon and eggs were breakfast foods, before remembering his earlier resolve to cut Draco some slack today. "Fine, tell Kreacher to buy whatever you want. Send him out right this minute if you want," he said, shoving another slice of bacon into his mouth and chewing.

Draco took Harry up on the offer, dictating a list of things to Kreacher he claimed were much healthier for someone in his condition. It wasn't until that statement that Harry realized that Draco had a legitimate reason for wanting to eat healthy: Draco was feeding the baby. Leo, for his part, was sitting happily in his little chair, batting away at a strand of toys Draco had charmed to float overhead.

An apple appeared on Draco's plate instantly, before Kreacher apparated away to the store.

"Look, I'm going over to the Weasleys this morning. You're welcome to do whatever, but I'll be back this afternoon with Teddy," Harry said, swallowing the last bite of eggs.

Draco waved Harry off with a, "Whatever Potter," and continued his own breakfast, which now consisted of two pieces of toast and the apple, the eggs and bacon having been pushed away. He considered telling Harry that he'd leave a note if he chose to leave, but then thought better of making himself accountable to Harry. As it was he could come and go with their son as he pleased without informing the git.

Harry took one more look at Leo, before exiting through the floo to the Burrow. He emerged into the empty living room, half expecting it to be filled with Weasleys, as it had the last time he'd seen it Sunday evening.

"Who's there?" Molly's voice called from the kitchen, the sound of dishes clanging.

"Me, Harry," Harry called as she bustled in.

"Oh, Harry." Molly's face seemed glad to see him for a moment, before turning serious. "Good, Arthur and I need to have a word with you."

"Um, yeah. I need to talk to Ginny. Malfoy came over yesterday and made up a bunch of b-" Harry stopped himself from cussing in front of Molly. "Er, stuff that wasn't true."

"Hmf," Molly replied, wringing her hands on a dish rag tucked into her apron and heading towards the door. "Let me just fetch Arthur. He's in the garage with Percy." Then she threw open the front door. "Arthur! Harry's here!"

Harry figured Arthur would be here at this hour, but hadn't expected Percy. Arthur was working nights and weekends now, because the Ministry was busy all hours of the day tracking down the last of the Death Eaters. He had volunteered to take the undesirable shift, because he was such a nice man and because all of his children were grown. There had been so many years where he worked nine to five and let others take the unwanted shifts, so he figured it was his turn.

Percy had come around and apologized to his family right before the final battle. He'd made several trips to the Burrow since and had attended Fred's funeral, but things were still a tad strained with him. He'd lost his prestigious job in the shuffling of administrations and was down-graded to what basically amounted to an errand boy. That and having been made to eat crow—not by his family, but by many others—rankled his feathers and had the uppity git acting his usual pretentious self.  
Harry and Molly waited in silence for a moment, listening to the sounds of Arthur and Percy chatting as they made their way back from the garage. When the two wizards finally gained the front door, Percy looked like he wanted to murder Harry, while Arthur just looked unusually serious.

"Ah good, Harry, I've been meaning to have a little chat with you," Arthur said, grabbing Harry around the shoulders and leading him over to the sofa, which Harry fell back on. "Percy, would you mind giving us a moment?"

"Uh, I could just go into the kitchen with Mum," Percy offered, looking like he wanted to do anything but.

"No dear, I actually have a few things to say to Harry myself. Perhaps you could check on Ginny?" Molly asked, coming to stand behind her husband, who seated himself across from Harry.

Percy grumbled to himself and stalked off, up the stairs.

As soon as Harry heard the door close, he put up his hands and said, "Look, I know how awful it must sound, but Malfoy was making it all up."

"So Draco Malfoy doesn't have your baby then?" Arthur asked pointedly, Molly's face equally pointed, indicated her mutual desire to know.

"No, that much seems to be true. I think Leo is mine, but I didn't sleep with Malfoy and I didn't cheat on Ginny."

The Weasleys wanted an explanation of that statement, of course, which Harry gave. He told them everything he knew about how Draco came to have Leo, including the involvement of dark magic and Lord Voldemort. Arthur was particularly interested in how exactly Draco had managed to conceive with only magic and a hair, because he didn't think it possible. If it wasn't possible, then Leo wasn't Harry's baby. Finally remembering his nightmare during the night, Harry promised to look into it, curious himself. He also made sure to mention what an arse Draco was on multiple occasions. It took a while, but the Weasley parents seemed to be accepting of Harry's explanation.

"So you did _not_ sleep with Draco Malfoy then," Molly concluded, which Harry confirmed.

"But you _did_ have sex with our daughter," Arthur asked pointedly.

"Ah." Harry suddenly knew he was trapped. That was one of their rules for their relationship and the reason Ginny was only allowed to spend the night when someone else was there to supervise. But he'd already violated said rule before the Weasley parents had laid it down, during sixth year, before he and Ginny had left Hogwarts. "Yes?" he said it as if it were a question.

A lecture on the dangers of underage sex followed. The Weasleys were disappointed in Harry. He tried to protest that he hadn't violated the rule since it had been stated to him last summer, which for some reason only made them more upset. They sent him outside to watch the gnomes and called Ginny down, so that they could have a little chat with her about that. It was only after that he was allowed to see Ginny.

Ginny's lower lip was pouted out and fury burned in her brown eyes. "You _told_ them?" she accused Harry, to which he nodded. "How _could_ you?"

"They already seemed to know?" Again, Harry's voice came out like a question.

"They didn't know, you retard. That's how they find out."

"I'm sorry?"

"Ergh! You know what, Malfoy can have you," Ginny said petulantly, turning her back on Harry.

And so Harry pleaded his case to Ginny's back, explaining that Draco was lying and that he'd never slept with Malfoy or cheated on her, but that he thought Draco was telling the truth about Leo being his.

"Right, so you can just get a paternity test at St. Mungo's and find out," Ginny said, turning around to face Harry.

"I don't really see the point; he looks just like me. And I've seen Malfoy lie enough that I can recognize the rare occurrence when he's being honest."

"Don't you even want to try the test, in hopes of getting away from Malfoy?" Ginny asked.

Harry shrugged.

"Harry, if you are telling the truth that you didn't have sex with this boy, then there is a very real chance that Leo is not yours. You need to have the test done," Arthur argued.

"I don't mind, really. It'll be nice having a family and the kid needs someone besides Malfoy. It's not really fair to Leo that Voldemort forced Malfoy to create him," Harry reasoned.

"It doesn't hurt to know for certain," Molly retorted.

"But I am certain. I've already signed the writ of paternity," Harry said with another shrug.

That caused Ginny to storm off abruptly up the stairs, leaving Harry bewildered, but determined to stick to his guns. The tables seemed to turn then, with Molly and Arthur going from scolding him, to reassuring him that Ginny just needed a bit of time. It was a lot to take in in one day. After all, Malfoy was an arse and Ginny hadn't even known about Leo. Harry accepted their excuses for their daughter, optimistic that he'd have her back after a cooling off period.

"You have already signed the writ of paternity?" Arthur asked, just to make certain.

"Yeah, why?" Harry asked in reply.

"Because there's a movement to order the Malfoy family to pay war reparations; they might lose everything, including their house. But if the Ministry tries it when they have your baby, it will blow up in the papers. The public has already lost so much faith in the Ministry that a blow like this could turn into a big deal. I better warn them not to try anything with the Malfoys," Arthur answered.

"That's why he came to me; he said the Ministry wouldn't let them into the Manor."

"And that's not likely to change for months. You Know Who was using their house as his base of operations. There are still a number of unaccounted for Death Eaters out there and we don't even know who they all were. The Aurors will need to thoroughly search that house for evidence. They won't turn it back over to the Malfoys until they're done."

"Great, so I can expect Malfoy to stay for months," Harry grumbled to himself.

The conversation moved on then to the subject of Dromeda and Teddy. Harry explained that Malfoy had brought it on, by wanting proof Harry knew how to handle a baby before letting him hold Leo. But now that Teddy was on his mind, he really did want to see his godson again. Teddy was seven weeks old now and he'd seen the baby twice since the end of the war, but not in the last two weeks; babies change quickly at that age.

The Weasleys agreed that it'd be a good idea to invite Dromeda there first, so that Harry could explain the situation. Then Harry fire-called her, letting her know it was a good time to come through. Thanks to his letter, she was already packed, although given that she had a newborn on her hands, she wasn't ready. Thus it was half an hour before Tonks' mother and son stepped out of the Weasley's fireplace and the explanations began again.

Harry was growing rather sick of explaining himself by the time Dromeda's questions were over. His earlier agitation due to his disturbed sleep was back, making him just a bit short with the woman, even though he didn't want to be. Thankfully, she knew purebloods and was quicker than the others to understand the bullshite her nephew had tried and would likely try to pull again.

"Well I certainly don't have a problem meeting my only nephew and great nephew, Harry. I think it'd be good for Teddy to have a second cousin," Dromeda concluded.

Teddy was asleep for the moment, so Harry took the opportunity to have a nice meal with people he loved and liked, as opposed to returning home and eating with Draco. Ginny and Percy came back down, although each only deemed a few terse words worthy of him. He couldn't care less about Percy and was much more upset about Ginny. But after what Draco had said to her, he appreciated her need for time.

After lunch, Harry and Dromeda flooed with Teddy back to Grimmauld Place, coming out in the kitchen. As they walked up the stairs, they heard happy children's tunes playing quietly in the background, coming from the wizard wireless. Leo was in his swing in the drawing room, Draco sitting in front of him eating a large bowl of saucy vegetables. Draco set his bowl down as they entered the room, his eyes looking tired and droopy. Harry flinched back, thinking that Draco's tongue would be even more biting than usual in this state.

Dromeda introduced herself and Teddy, while Harry hung back. Draco returned the greetings in a tone that was on the nice side for him, but apologized for it anyway. "Sorry, I'm exhausted. Leo had me up all night."

"Never mind that dear. I'm sure it must be hard without your parents here to help you," Dromeda waved Draco off.

"They don't really help much, but my elf does. I never realized how much easier she makes it."

"Perhaps you could bring your elf over. I'm sure Harry won't mind an extra hanging about," Dromeda suggested.

Draco nodded, acknowledging the merit of the idea. "She was going to join me at the Manor, but I'll have my parents send her here instead."

"Excellent. For now, how about I keep an eye on Leo while you take a nap?"

At Dromeda's suggestion, Draco eyed Harry skeptically, as if this might be a trap. "Just so you know, I don't trust Harry to watch him. I've seen no proof that he's decent with a baby," he said.

"For Merlin's sake, Malfoy, I just held Teddy this morning," Harry said, stepping forward and taking the newborn out of Dromeda's arms. He did his best to support Teddy's head and walked over to sit on the sofa with the baby.

"Still, I don't want you experimenting on Leo. I don't doubt my aunt has the skill to care for a baby, but I haven't seen you with one for more than five seconds now," Draco retorted.

"I will handle Leo and leave Teddy to Harry to practice with," Dromeda reassured, having full faith in Harry.

Draco looked like he wanted to protest, but he must really have been exhausted, because he soon gave up. He shrugged, before retreating to his room, closing the door behind him.

"Wow, this is the first time I've been with Leo without Draco," Harry said, leaning forward, towards Leo, with Teddy still cradled in his arms. Leo was more interesting, because he was awake and happy, making cooing sounds, while Teddy lay there with his eyes closed. Sure Teddy's hair color changed when he was startled, but that was normally followed by crying.

"Mind you don't drop Teddy, dear. I trust you, but my nephew is correct that there are things you wouldn't know. Why my Dora flipped herself right out of my hands when she was two weeks old. I was holding her, then she flung her little body backwards, right out of my grasp. Lucky my Ted was there to catch her with an Arresto Momentum," Dromeda said good naturedly.

Dromeda pulled a few baby items out of her own nappy bag for Teddy and proceeded to give Harry a crash tutorial in all things baby. Harry got to feed, burp, and change Teddy as well as put him into and take him out of several baby contraptions. It was a lot of work and she wasn't always right there to help him, since she had promised to tend to Leo. Leo had been fine in the swing for some time, before needing a nappy change and going down for a nap. When Leo woke back up, he was inconsolable and only cried louder the more they tried to placate him.

"He must be hungry. Help me make him a bottle," Dromeda said.

"Um, Draco's not bottle feeding him," Harry replied.

"Right. You best fetch him then so that he can feed little Leo."

Harry did as instructed, risking his own neck by knocking on Draco's door, worried that Draco would bite his head off for being woke up. But Draco didn't, instead groggily asking that Dromeda bring Leo to him, as he sat up on the bed. She did and closed the door behind her, before rejoining Harry and Teddy in the drawing room.

They talked about Tonks, Remus, and Ted, and the things that Dromeda still must do regarding the three recent deaths in her family. It was three quarters of an hour later when Teddy began to fuss for no apparent reason, having already been fed and burped, but not going down for a nap either. Dromeda suggested walking the floor with the baby on one's shoulder as the only thing she'd found so far to calm Teddy in this state. Harry was feeling confident in his baby tending abilities and volunteered for the task.

Harry was still pacing back and forth with Teddy, swaying gently with each step to the gentle music that was still playing softly, when Draco emerged from the room with Leo. The dark circles under Draco's eyes were gone, but he still looked sleepy as his eyes drooped. He positioned Leo, tummy side down, on a blanket on the floor, spreading toys out in front for the baby to play with. Leo reached out with both hands in front of him, squirming on his belly, but didn't really get anywhere.

"Thank you for watching him," Draco said politely, if a tad quietly, to his aunt. It was probably the first time Harry had ever heard Draco genuinely thank anyone.

All Draco managed for Harry was a grunt at first, but a few minutes later he looked up and noticed that Harry was doing a decent job pacifying Teddy. "Don't think that because you're passible with a baby that you have free reign with Leo now," he warned.

Coming from Draco that was probably a compliment. "Can I hold him now, then?" Harry asked.

"When he cries, you can," Draco agreed.

Draco seemed far less grumpy than before, so Harry decided it was safe to tell Draco about what was going on with Malfoy Manor, which was precisely what he did.

"So I can't go home for an undetermined period of time and have to wait for the Aurors to get off their lazy arses to do their job, but they probably won't take my home from me?" Draco asked in conclusion.

"Pretty much," Harry agreed, noticing that Teddy had finally fallen asleep. He laid the baby down in the travel cot Dromeda had brought.

Draco sighed and said, "I guess this is as good a time as any to tell my parents. Is that fireplace connected to the intercontinental floo?"

"It's not even connected to the regular floo," Harry said with a shrug.

"It used to be connected to both. I'm rather certain it was shut down when this place became a safe house, but it shouldn't take me too long to connect it back up," Dromeda said, pulling up her sleeves.

Dromeda made it sound easier than it looked. It actually took several complex spells just to connect back up to the regular floo network. Then there was a quick fire-call over to the Ministry. From the harried looking Ministry official there was a vague promise that he'd put it on the list and that they could expect it running sometime in the next one to fourteen days. Draco stepped in and demanded they be moved to the front of the list, since this was Harry Potter's house. Harry cringed at Draco's harsh manner, but reluctantly admitted that Draco got the job done.

The floo was connected mere minutes after that fire-call and Draco was then able to fire-call his parents. It wasn't a full connection, because Austria was too far to floo, but it was fine for fire-calls. Draco informed his parents of where he was staying, what was going on with the Manor, and that he wanted them to send Dipsy to him here, at Grimmauld Place. They agreed and Draco past them a slip of parchment Harry had given him with the Secret of their location; they would need to know in order to fire-call Draco back and to send the house elf.

Later, when Leo began to fuss, having rolled onto his back and flung his captured toy away, Harry finally picked his son up in his arms. He took Leo over to sit on the sofa, bouncing the baby gently and making shushing sounds.

"Ooow," Leo said, lips pursing in an adorable expression.

"Did you hear that?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Don't get ahead of yourself PaPa; he tells me oo too," Draco replied with a smirk.

"Well he clearly likes me, don't you my little Leo?" Harry's voice went up higher in pitch when he spoke to the baby.

"Taste isn't always something a Malfoy is born with," Draco said.

Laughing, Dromeda said, "Ah Draco, you remind me so much of your father."

Draco smirked at that and Harry rolled his eyes.

Dromeda stayed through dinner and her presence seemed to moderate both Draco and Harry's interactions with each other. Neither insulted the other and no major fights ensued. After the evening meal though, Draco and Leo disappeared once more into their room and Dromeda took Teddy home.

An hour later Draco emerged walking into the drawing room with Leo and the nappy bag, telling Harry he could help again with Leo's bath if wanted. Harry did want, so he gathered the bathing supplies from the nappy bag and filled the tub with water, while Draco undressed the baby. This time Draco held Leo in place and let Harry wash Leo's front. Draco still did the back and hair himself, but he made a real effort to include Harry and not just use Harry as a slave to pass him things.

Afterwards, Draco sat on the floor in front of the sofa with his knees bent up in front of him. Leo, wrapped in a towel, was cradled on his legs, as he dried his son with one hand, keeping the other firmly gripped on the baby to prevent falls.

Harry made short work of cleaning up the remains of the bath, storing everything back in the nappy bag once dry. Then he sat next to Draco on the floor and watched.

"He's so perfect," Harry observed and Draco gave a murmur of agreement. "How did you make him?"

"Black magic, I told you," Draco answered, not looking up from the thick black hair he was toweling dry.

"I know, but how? Where did you find the spell for something like that? How does it work?" Harry asked.

"In a book full of fertility spells; they aren't terribly dark, but anything that recreates human tissue is considered black. It copies your essence from your hair and recreates your seed." Draco looked up then and smirked at Harry, before drawling, "I hope I don't need to explain what I did with your seed."

Harry gasped, "You mean anyone can just steal another person's seed and all they need to do it is one hair? What's to stop everyone from doing it?"

"It's illegal, for one, to do it without your consent." Draco shrugged and stopped drying Leo in order to think. The baby was mostly dry now and wriggled and squirmed on Draco's lap, but besides Draco's hand holding him in place, was temporally ignored. "At the time the law was the least of my concerns; the Dark Lord was the law. And now that he's not, don't you go thinking about using that against me. You _owe_ me after that Sectumsempra thing you nearly killed me with. And if you can get away with it because you were at school, well I can too, because my curse wasn't nearly as dark and I was still at school too."

"No, look, that's not what I'm concerned about. I'm worried someone else will find one of my hairs and do it too."

"Right, Weasley. You will just have to find a way to keep her away from your hair."

"No, not Ginny. All of those witches who follow me around and ask for my autograph wherever I go!"

Leo let out a loud noise, trying to copy Harry's exclamation, but thankfully wasn't upset about it for once. Perhaps it was because it was said without anger being directed at anyone in the room.

"Oh, them." Draco sneered. "I wouldn't worry about them. Snape told me after I had already done it that he didn't think anyone other than me would have been able to pull off that spell with you. Apparently there is some requirement for a very strong link to be involved."

"Snape was involved? Did he help you?" This would make more sense to Harry, since he now equated the late professor with Merlin or Dumbledore like abilities and that Snape was capable of anything.

"No. He kept trying to butt in, but I wanted to do it on my own. Afterwards he couldn't believe I'd done it and insisted I tell him how. He wanted to see the book I'd used and everything."

"What did he say when he saw it?"

"I already told you Potter. He just laughed, clapped me on the back, and said no one else could have managed it."

"Professor Snape _laughed_?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I know, it's scary when it happens, isn't it? A disconcerting barking laugh, it was."

"I wouldn't know; he never did it when I was present," Harry replied.

Draco looked down then at the baby in his lap and said, "Ah shite, Leo! Did you _have _to piss on Father?"

Harry laughed at that, triggering Leo's high, tinkling laughter. The laughter was interrupted when Draco threw the piss soaked towel at Harry's head. Leo was quickly covered in a nappy, dressed, and left in his swing for Harry to watch, while Draco went to clean himself up.

* * *

Author's Note: I would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on the last chapter! I appreciate it very much :)

Please Review!


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: I would like to thank vickythecharmedfan, for being the only person to leave a review on the last chapter. Your feedback is always so very much appreciated girl!

* * *

Harry slept much better that night. First off, Draco's house elf Dipsy had arrived to help with Leo. Second off, Harry had cast both permanent silencing and muffling charms on his floor and walls in the direction of the baby's room, so that he wouldn't be woken in the night. Breakfast was more pleasant too, since Draco now had exactly what he wanted to eat: a large bowl of fresh chilled raspberries, cream, and porridge. It wasn't until after breakfast when his day was first disturbed.

"What have you done with all of Ginny's things?" Harry asked, standing in the hallway of the third floor, looking into the room across from Draco's that had belonged to Ginny. Not that Ginny lived here, but there was plenty of room, so she had her own room when she stayed.

The walls had been covered in decaying wallpaper and the carpet threadbare, giving the room a shabby appearance. The antique furniture with Ginny's clothes strewn about had made the room look cluttered and dirty. But now all of that was gone. The room was completely gutted down to the wooden floors, which weren't as bad as the carpet had been and appeared to be freshly sanded and refinished. The walls were freshly painted sunshine yellow, complete with an animated bunny jumping into a cackling stump. It looked like a whole new room with the doxy eaten curtains the only evidence remaining of its former state.

"Oh, was that her rubbish then? She's terribly filthy to leave so much garbage lying about," Draco replied from inside the room, where he was pulling nursery furniture out of his nappy bag. He had both house elves, Kreacher and Dipsy, with him, moving each piece into place as he summoned it out.

"It wasn't rubbish; those were her things! Where are they?"

"In the rubbish heap, I guess. Ask your elf," Draco said with a shrug, not even bothering to look up at the fury on Harry's face as he continued his task.

"Kreacher! Where are Ginny's things? Where's the furniture that was in this room?" Harry asked the old stooped elf.

"Kreacher did as Master Draco instructed. Kreacher took all of the rubbish down to the rubbish bin on the street."

Harry let out a feral growl-like sound, turned on his heel, and stalked off down the stairs and out the front door. It wasn't trash day, so the rubbish bin was against the house, instead of being down by the street, thank Merlin. In it he found all of Ginny's things and the shrunken furniture that had occupied the room, covered in debris from the old carpet and wallpaper and their last few meals. He considered strangling Draco and Kreacher as he pulled the items out and cleaned them off. Nothing was ruined or irreparably dirty and Draco did have a baby, so he grudgingly decided he wouldn't kill anyone.

Harry shoved the contents of Ginny's former room into a burlap sack, which he carried up to his room on the top floor. Then he returned to the third floor to question Draco. "And what is it that you're doing with Ginny's room?"

"This isn't Weasley's room; this is the new nursery. You invited us to stay, so surely you realize that we must have a nursery. We can't just keep flinging Leo's things about from room to room," Draco replied. He had the room furnished and was now pulling out linens, a sheet for the crib, towels, washrags, and nappies for the changing table. He left the linens on top of the various items of furniture and the two elves went behind him putting them into their proper positions.

"I thought you claimed Hermione's room across the hall?"

"The room across the hall is my bedroom. I had no idea you'd let Granger stay in it. Now that I do, I'm glad I insisted on having your elf change the bedding." Draco was pulling out Leo's bathing supplies and a bin to contain them, tossing them one at a time in the direction of the changing table. Dipsy caught them and put it all away.

It hit Harry in a flash, the memory of when Draco first imposed his presence upon him. Draco had clearly said, "Rooms," in the plural and this was what he meant by it.

"Why can't you turn the room on the end of the hall into the nursery?" That room was Ron's, but it was better to take from his best friend, who was currently out of the country, than his girlfriend, who was already angry with the situation.  
"Because it is too far from my room; it's on the other side of the floor. Plus that room smells like spoiled pig's feet and is too small. You do plan on having Teddy over, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well then that means you need room for two babies. Or did you want to give Teddy his own room? I suppose you will have to soon enough, but I didn't see any sign that you had so much as a baby blanket for him yet. I errantly assumed you'd want to borrow Leo's things for your godson, but obviously I am wrong. I'm sure Leo's things with the taint of sanitation on them are not good enough for your precious Teddy. If it doesn't smell like rotten pig's feet, it's clearly not good enough for the little war orphan my cousin left behind."

"What the fuck are you talking about, Malfoy?"

"Watch your mouth; Leo's right there." Draco indicated a playpen full of toys with his elbow, since his hands were filled with stacks of baby clothes. He was now in the process of filling up the drawers, while Leo was happily twisting and turning on his side, reaching out to grab a new toy, after discarding the one already in his little hand.

"Er, sorry. I'll just go," Harry said, turning away and heading to the drawing room.

Draco was left alone to transform Ginny's room into the nursery. Having a nursery was probably for the best and would mean they wouldn't have to continue pulling things out of Draco's magic nappy bag forever. Harry wished it didn't have to be in Ginny's room, although, he did agree that the foul smell in Ron's room was probably not good for a baby. If it were up to him, he would've turned Hermione's, now Draco's, room into the nursery and left Draco to sleep in there too. Why did Draco even need his own room?

Or Draco could've taken over the empty fourth floor. If Harry had known Draco was staying, that's where he would've put Draco in the first place. There were only two bedrooms up there, one of which was the oversized master bedroom. But no one had wanted to stay in either of those rooms, because Sirius had kept Buckbeak in the master bedroom and the other room had belonged to Fred and George. The remains of an exploded caldron were all over the walls in Fred and George's old room and it smelled even worse than Ron's room. Thus the rooms would have to be cleaned before being used again, which was why Harry hadn't put Draco and Leo there in the first place.

Harry was still grumbling internality about the situation, looking out at the pretty light blue clouds on what had to be the clearest day all month, if all year, when a head appeared in his fireplace. It was a balding wizard he recognized from the war, his red Auror collar showing just above the point where his spinning head was severed. Harry jumped, not used to this fireplace being connected to the floo and suddenly recalling that Dromeda had set it up the night before.

"Oi, Harry, good show. Robards and Stevenson would like a word with you, my good chap," the head said jollily and Harry tried to place a name to that face. It was something with a D, like Davis or David or Davies.

"Where are they?"

"Auror headquarters. You know the way, I trust?"

Harry confirmed that he did. He dismissed Donald or Derrick and informed Draco where he was going. Being the Savior of the Wizarding World, he was now allowed to floo directly into Auror headquarters and he did just that. He found Head Auror Robards and Lieutenant Stevenson in a conference room with a handful of lower level Aurors, including the formally disembodied head.

"Harry! Good of you to join us!" Robards exclaimed, cutting off the speech of another Auror to do so.

"Robards. Stevenson," Harry nodded, holding out his hand and letting all of the wizards in the room shake it.

Stevenson caught on to the fact that Harry didn't recognize or remember everyone else in the room. He thus introduced Harry to Belchinstein, Dixon, Katz, and Martinez. Dixon being the name of the wizard who had summoned Harry.

"Right, well let's get down to business, Harry," Robards said, taking command of the meeting again. "Katz here is head of the team combing through Malfoy Manor for clues. He's working under Stevenson, who is in charge of rounding up all remaining Death Eaters. Marty and Belch are covering the Lestrange Mansion and the Crabbe Cottage, which are known Death Eater hangouts. Dick is coordinating information from a number of lesser locations. We need to know how many Death Eaters there were in order to know how many are left. We are flying blind without that knowledge. We can sweep the streets, but if we don't know what we're looking for, we'll never find them all."

"So what did you want me for? This isn't the best time for me to start training," Harry replied. He'd been all gung ho about joining the Aurors when Robards offered straight after the war. They'd used him for a handful of major missions straight away when their numbers were low and the Death Eaters were fleeing into the woodwork faster than their side could track them down. But once things had calmed down a bit, the fact that he hadn't even started Auror training was flung in his face and he'd been told to take some time off until the start of training. That was last Friday, four days before Draco had shown up on his doorstep. They had yet to get back to him, but it was only Thursday, so an entire week had yet to pass.

"Never mind the training. Lieutenant Grubbly-Plank is working on setting that up, but that shan't be for another week at least," Robards said to Harry, before turning to one of the other Aurors, handing the floor over. "Katz?"

"Yes, well, I have reason to believe that the Malfoy family has valuable information. We've already obtained many names from evidence left inside their house, but we suspect they know even more. Given that they seem to have switched sides, we'd like to see if they are willing to talk to us and name names. Only problem is, we can't get to them. We don't even know where the elder Malfoys are," Katz explained.

"And you heard Draco Malfoy is staying with me?" Harry guessed.

"Yes, well Arthur Weasley and I are on good terms. He happened to mention it," Belch interjected.

"So you want me to drag Draco Malfoy in for questioning?" Harry asked, not at all opposed to the idea.

"No, not drag. He's not a suspect, he's a witness. Ask him to come in and volunteer information. At this point, it's optional," Katz clarified.

Harry soon found himself back at Grimmauld Place, staring into the nursery, which Draco was again painting with his wand, adding details to the scene on the walls. It was only the fact that he was painting with magic that allowed him to do so without danger of splattering the furniture and other belongings already in place.

"You want me to drop everything and drag my son into the Ministry of Magic, _voluntarily_?" Draco asked incredulously, in response to Harry's request.

"Yes. It'll help make this country safer, for _our_ son," Harry answered.

"I'll go on one condition."

"What, Malfoy?"

"I don't want Weasley around Leo."

"No, Ron's my best mate."

"Not that Weasley, Jennifer Weasley."

"You mean Ginny, as in Ginevra?"

"If that's what her name is, then yes, Potter, Gineefra."

Harry rolled his eyes, sure Draco was being deliberately obtuse regarding Ginny's name.

"Well Potter?"

"No. She's my girlfriend and Leo is my son. I can't keep them apart," Harry replied.

"Well then you have your answer. Your precious Aurors can just track down the likes of Rabastan and Renaldo Lestrange without my help."

Harry's ears perked up at the name drop. Rodolphus and Bellatrix fought to the death in the final battle, but the younger brother and a cousin got away.

"You know where the Lestranges are?"

"Maybe," Draco said with a shrug, but in a tone that clearly implied the true answer was in the affirmative.

"The Lestranges are probably the worst Death Eaters left!" Harry's voice was a plea, urging Draco to give them up.

"And Rabastan is my only living uncle." Again Draco shrugged.

"Come on. Pack up Leo and let's get to the Ministry. You need to tell this to the Aurors."

"No, Potter," Draco said, wrenching his arm away from Harry's grasping hand. "You already said you wouldn't grant my request, so I won't tell you or your little friends where my uncle is."

"But this is Rabastan Lestrange we're talking about! He's a Death Eater!" Harry said it as if this was supposed to somehow be news to Draco. Draco just shrugged and refused to budge. "Why are you so against Ginny anyway? You're going to have to accept my friends in our son's life, now that I'm in it."

"Your friends, maybe, but each and every one of your trollips, I think not. I want my son to have a sense of stability in his life and not to have to get attached to a dozen different witches you bring home on the spur of the moment."

"Does that mean you won't be introducing him to any of your girlfriends either?"

"What girlfriends? I'm gay."

That was news to Harry, but it wasn't a big deal and he quickly recovered. He himself suspected that he was bi, but hadn't had the chance to experiment with blokes, since he was busy with the war when the revelation came to him. "Boyfriends then."

"Of course not. Just because he doesn't have the ideal family life doesn't mean he needs to grow up like he was the child of a vagrant."

Harry had to admit that Draco had a point about not introducing their son to casual partners, but he was serious about Ginny. "But I want to marry her."

"Are you engaged?"

"No…"

"Well until there is a ring on her finger, she doesn't need to meet our son. And don't you even think about abusing that rule and handing out rings to every girl you sleep with, because if you do, I'll up the rule to marriage."

"You'd make me marry a girl just to introduce her to my son?"  
"Well if you say it like that, then you're making me think you plan on throwing the title around. If you turn into one of those muggle playboys with an ex-wife, I won't extend the privilege to the new one. You only get one."

"And you plan on sticking to these same rules yourself, do you?"

"Absolutely. No Malfoy has ever been divorced."

It occurred to Harry then that Draco was just trying to protect their son. Draco wasn't saying Ginny couldn't ever see Leo, but that Harry should be serious and make a commitment to her before introducing the two. Given the stories the papers were printing about him sleeping with every witch he was seen touching and the owls from admirers, which Kreacher was in charge of intercepting and burning, it was reasonable for Draco to have concerns about the possibility that Harry was a playboy.

"Alright, fine. I'll keep Ginny away until we're engaged," Harry conceded. After all, it would only take four words and a ring to rectify the situation.

"Good. Give me a minute; I have to pack Leo's things," Draco concluded happily, a smug smirk on his face.

It was much more than a minute when Draco was finally ready. He took so long packing that when he finished, he decided it was too close to the time Leo would need to eat again. Harry was impatient to get going and found himself muttering angrily about the fact that his son ate every three hours. But there was nothing to do for it and Draco was eventually ready, Leo in his arms and the golden snitch nappy bag over his shoulder.

When they got to the Auror department, the earlier meeting had broken up. Harry escorted Draco and Leo into the empty room anyway and left them to wait while he tracked down someone of authority. It was Dixon he found first and the Auror promised to track down the others for him. He went back to the room and waited with Draco. Leo was in his little chair normally kept in the kitchen, and Draco was showing him some loud singing toy. Leo seemed to like the thing, reaching out to grasp it in order to guide it to his mouth, before letting go, laughing, and starting the process anew.

Dixon returned with Katz and Stevenson and two lower level Aurors there to take notes for them. Katz led the interview, asking Draco question after question, Leo's toy singing in the background. Leo let out a few happy squeals interrupting them momentarily, but for the most part sat happily in his chair playing with his toy. It seemed that Auror Katz wanted to know about every detail Draco had witnessed. Knowing that Leo wouldn't last that long, Harry decided to intervene.

"We only have an hour or so, so let's keep this to the most important facts," Harry said.

Katz nodded and began asking Draco for names of Death Eaters. While Draco talked, one of the lower level Aurors took notes and the other cross checked names, piping up whenever Draco said a name that was new to them. This time Katz didn't ask for additional details, such as whether or not Draco knew where any of these people were. The second time Rabastan's name was thrown out there and ignored, Harry decided it was time to interrupt again. "Draco knows where Rabastan might be."

If all eyes hadn't already been on Draco, they were now, quills paused in mid-air and eyes looking up from parchments.

"Is that true?" Katz asked.

"Well I don't know for certain where he is at this exact moment, but I know where the Lestrange's secret underground bunker is, yes," Draco answered.

Draco ended up circling a point on a map for the Aurors to indicate where Lestrange's bunker was. The rest of the interview time was spent with Draco naming Death Eaters and occasionally listing locations that they could be. They stopped when Leo began to fuss. Head Auror popped his head in then and pressed for an additional meeting, but Draco said only, "We will see."

"Harry, see the Malfoys home, but do pop back over for another chat sometime this afternoon if you have time," Robards said, ending the discussion for the moment.

Harry did exactly that. He escorted Draco and Leo home. When it was clear that they were going to disappear for another hour for one of their feedings, he grew bored. Having nothing else to do, he flooed back over to the Ministry and found Robards at his desk for that private chat the Head Auror had requested.

"Harry, good. I'm glad you came back. There are a number of things we still need to discuss."

"Er, yes sir," Harry replied. "Look, Draco can't be coming back all the time, but I see no reason why he can't send you guys owls with what you want to know." As long as the Ministry provided the owls, that was, since neither he nor Draco had one at the moment.

"That shouldn't be a problem. There is something else I wanted to talk to you about." There was a pause in which Harry looked at Robards expectantly, waiting for him to get to the point. "The baby, Leo, is it?"

"Yes sir."

"Right. He is your son then?"

"Yes," Harry answered honestly, wondering what the Auror was getting at.

"Your son with Draco Malfoy?" Harry nodded and Robards continued, "Is there any truth to the rumor that Malfoy conceived the baby without your knowledge? You didn't have sex with him?"

"Yeah, I wasn't there. We never had sex."

"You see Harry, I'm concerned because I know of no spell that would allow Malfoy to have your child, without your consent. Every spell I know of requires an established relationship. If you weren't in a relationship, I don't know how he could've done it."

"There was a hair involved, I know that."

"Do you know that what Malfoy did is illegal?"

"I know it's black magic, but he told me it's only because these spells involve regenerating body parts, which automatically falls under black magic. It doesn't seem that dark to me," Harry answered.

"It's not. Normally these spells are only used in cases of impotency and are perfectly legal. If they are used without consent, then they become illegal. But because the relationship is required, we don't get many cases of misuse. Since you did not consent, do you wish to press charges?"

Harry knew the answer to that question immediately. "No," he said, shaking his head. He knew what it'd been like for Draco, forced to obey Voldemort's orders. Voldemort had ordered it and Draco had unwillingly complied, just like Draco hadn't really wanted to kill Dumbledore. And once Draco had the baby, he'd done his best to protect Leo, keep the baby safe, and take proper care of the child, going so far as to let Harry free and switch sides in the war. Draco had given Harry critical information and let him and his friends go.

Robards raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"I hit him with a dark curse first; we're even," Harry explained, repeating the excuse Draco had given him. If he compared the two dark curses, Sectumsempra on Harry's part and Leo on Draco's, there was no question that Harry got the better deal. He'd much rather have a baby than have his chest sliced open and almost bleed to death.

"It is your decision son. I will leave this matter up to you, but I do think you should look into how exactly it was accomplished. If the Death Eaters invented a new spell that can create a biological child with nothing more than a hair, then we need to know about it. I hope for all our sakes something like that never gets out," Robards concluded.

Harry concurred, but he also knew what according to Draco, Snape had said about it. He relayed the information to Robards, but the Auror still wanted to know the exact spell that had been used. Robards also wanted the Unspeakables to examine the case and determine if Snape was correct.

Later that evening, Harry questioned Draco about the book the spell had come from and exactly how the spell had been performed. Draco had found the book in the Malfoy family library. He'd brewed the potion in the dungeons of Hogwarts and performed the dark spell in his dormitory. It required a preexisting relationship, but Draco hadn't been aware of that requirement when he did it; he just did it and if Harry wanted to see exactly what he did, the book was in his room at Malfoy Manor.

* * *

Author's Note: Draco's behaving badly again; this is the first of his many attempts to cut Ginny out of Harry's life. He'll meter out the information slowly, to keep pressure on Harry to keep Ginny away. Up next Ginny will find out about what Draco did to her room…

Please Review!


	5. Chapter 5

Mid Friday morning Ginny came stumbling out of the drawing room floo. Harry was surprised by her presence for only a second, before his lips split into a wide smile and he stepped forward to hug her. She returned the hug with the briefest of gestures, before pulling away.

"I've not completely forgiven you," Ginny said, walking past Harry towards the stairs, "but I need that blouse I left here. Mum's going to clean it for me so that I can wear it to that dinner tonight…" As she talked, she made the short trip up to the third floor to the doorway to her old room and Harry followed. She stopped and stared into the new nursery. "What did you do to my room!?" The last was an angry shriek and she was suddenly livid, turning bright red, from her ears to her neck.

And then Leo was screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Um," Harry said from behind Ginny.

Draco abandoned the clothing he was organizing on the top of the chest of drawers and rushed to pick Leo up. He bounced and made shushing noises, but Leo was clearly not going to be appeased so easily. "Can't you keep that banshee of yours quiet?" he asked.

"Banshee!?" Ginny asked indignantly.

"Come on, you're not helping and your blouse is upstairs," Harry said, tugging on Ginny's arm and hoping she'd come away with him.

Ginny looked like she was going to argue the point, but then glanced back at Leo, who was still screaming in Draco's arms. Obviously the baby was going to win any fight, so she huffed and stormed past Harry towards the landing. When she got there, she turned and asked, "What's going on?"

"At least come into the drawing room," Harry pleaded, since Leo and Draco would still be able to hear them from there.

Ginny acquiesced and then the two of them were sitting across from each other, Ginny in the armchair and Harry on the sofa, the swing having already been moved into the nursery.

"Well?" Ginny demanded.

"Errrr…"

"Why has Malfoy taken over _my_ room? Why did you _let_ Malfoy take over my room?"

"He started it while I was out Wednesday. He was halfway done before I realized yesterday morning what he was doing."  
"And when you found out?" Ginny asked pointedly.

"Um, well I tried to get him to switch rooms and take Ron's for the nursery," Harry said defensively.

"And?"

"And it smells. He doesn't want the baby in a smelly room. And he said it wasn't big enough for Leo and Teddy. I reckon he's right that Teddy needs a space here too."  
"And what about me?"

"I'd rather have you closer to me. I know your parents won't let you share a room with me, but you could take Regulus' old room or the master bedroom." He didn't bother offering Fred and George's old room, since it was an even more offensive choice.

"Does the master bedroom still smell like Buckbeak and dead ferrets?"

"Um, yeah, but I'll fix that."

"You'd better," Ginny said standing up. "Now where are my things?"

Harry led Ginny up to his room on the top floor—Sirius' old room—and helped her find what she wanted from the burlap sack. She wasn't pleased that her things had been shoved into a sack so haphazardly and was even less pleased by the rotting apple core she discovered bundled up with her good blouse, like the cloth was a used tissue.

"I want him out, Harry," Ginny said when she looked at Harry, after unfurling the now very winkled blouse.

"I can't. I already told him he could stay and he has nowhere to go. He won't be allowed back to his house until the investigation clears out of there."

"Urgh. Just throw him out on his arse! I don't care where he goes!"

"And the baby?" Harry asked, not believing that she was considering the baby too. Leo hadn't done anything and he was Harry's child.

"Take the baby from him and raise him yourself if you're so concerned. I'm sick of this. I'm going home," Ginny said, before storming off back down the stairs, blouse in hand. At the second floor landing, she turned and called back up the stairs. "And don't forget you're taking me to that dinner tonight." Then she was gone through the floo in the drawing room.

Harry stood in front of the drawing room fireplace staring at the embers as they died away in Ginny's wake. He heard the sound of Leo's cries growing louder and when he looked up, Draco with Leo in arm, was walking through the doorway, having come from the direction of the stairs.

"Here, you take him. You did this," Draco said, pressing Leo into Harry's arms.

That was the first time Draco had offered Leo to Harry and despite the situation, it brought a smile to Harry's lips. Harry took his son and looked down at the red little face that so resembled his own. Leo's mouth was open and turned down like a fish, but his cry paused momentarily as he decided whether or not to continue crying in his new position or if this might be alright. There was a drizzle of snot dripping out of Leo's nose and a pair of tear streaks running down his cheeks. Leo looked up at Harry through his wet eyelashes as Harry began walking and swaying with the baby. The crying picked back up, but softer this time as the pair of wet green eyes blinked with sleepiness. There was something Harry found endearing about the baby, despite the racket, although he couldn't quite place it.

"Did not," Harry protested, because he couldn't let Draco have the last word.

"You did so!" Draco's voice was a whispered shout, clearly trying not to upset the baby further. "You promised me yesterday that you wouldn't let Weasley around Leo and then what do you do? You let the banshee screaming into the nursery! Leo was asleep, thank you very much."

"I didn't get a chance to talk to her. She flooed in and was off screaming at you before I could stop her. I'll talk to her tonight," Harry said over the sound of Leo's cries.

"If you do not keep your word, I won't give your friends any more information. I won't write a reply to that owl they sent this morning. Those names and locations they want will stay in my head, I swear it to Salazar himself."

Leo was quieting down now, nodding back off to sleep, but his displeasure with being woken up was still evident on his face. "I agreed to go to some dinner tonight. It's for war heroes and I said I'd take Ginny. I'll talk to her then," Harry whispered.

Draco didn't seem pleased with the idea of Harry seeing Ginny, but he didn't say anything about that. Instead he said, "Leo's asleep. Put him back in his crib, will you?"

Draco followed behind Harry to the nursery, where he laid Leo down. Now that he was reminded of tonight's dinner, he decided he'd better figure out his own robes for the event. Thus he went upstairs and called Kreacher to help him find something clean to wear.

Harry had been made to go to a number of these events and dinners since the war; one a week during the first month, but this was the first one since the one month anniversary a week and a half ago. All of these dinners were why he and Ron had been dragged out to buy new clothes shortly after the war. He'd gotten three sets of dress robes, under the hypothesis that if he had three, he wouldn't have to worry about cleaning them. Only he'd been to so many of these things he'd worn all three multiple times. Kreacher wasn't that great at cleaning and Harry began to wish he'd sent his robes with Ginny for Molly to clean. He eventually chose the least dirty.

The least dirty choice was heavily wrinkled, with a small pudding stain on the front. Harry asked Kreacher to clean it, which took over an hour and made it worse; now it was stained, wrinkled, and had a stripy appearance. He then attempted to wash the pudding stain out in the sink himself, to little success, because the only thing he managed to get out were the stripes Kreacher had added. Eventually he just dried it, put it on, and went downstairs to tell Draco he was leaving.

"That is what you were working on all afternoon that made you miss lunch? You should have eaten lunch and not have bothered with it; you might look a right spot better if you did," Draco said eying Harry, baby Leo on his shoulder.

"I suppose you could do better then?" Harry asked, ears tinged red at the ridicule.

"I could…" Draco looked for a second like he was about to say he wouldn't help, but then he pulled out his wand and shot a pair of spells at Harry. The wrinkles were instantly released and the pudding stain vanished. "But now your hair doesn't match. Would you like me to do something about that too?" Draco smirked.

"No, no, this is great. Thanks Malfoy."

"If you want to thank me, Potter, don't bring Weasley back here."

"Yeah, fine. I have to go," Harry replied and flooed to the Burrow to pick Ginny up.

"But Mummm, what do you mean you can't get it out? You can get _any_ stain out," Ginny was saying from the doorway to the kitchen. She was dressed in the blouse from earlier with a plain skirt and flats.

"I don't know what you did to it Ginny, but it really was in quite a state. You're lucky I got it looking that decent," Molly replied, standing by the kitchen sink.

Harry approached Ginny from behind and said, "I'm here."

"Oh Harry, why don't you look nice tonight," Molly complimented.

Ginny took in Harry's appearance and said, "You _do_ look nice. Did Kreacher fix your robes? Could he fix my blouse too?"

"No, Malfoy did it."

"Malfoy!?"

"Yeah, Kreacher made them worse, actually. What's wrong with your blouse?"

"Well it's all your fault. Mum says it looked like my blouse was used as a dish rag it was so nasty. She got the mold from your apple, which was disgusting by the way, but she couldn't do a thing about this white stain." Ginny pointed to the medium sized stain on her chest.

"It doesn't look so bad; I couldn't even spot it until you pointed it out," Harry appeased.

"Really?" Ginny asked hopefully.

"I wouldn't trust Harry's judgment on that. Best go fetch another blouse, Ginny," Molly interjected.

"But I've already worn all the others to Ministry dinners. Couldn't Malfoy do mine like he did yours?" Ginny asked again.

"There's absolutely no way he'd agree to that after you screamed and woke Leo up this morning. He'd probably do something worse to it," Harry said.

"Ginny, you didn't? In front of the baby?" Molly asked incredulously. "I know I taught you better."

"Mum, I told you about this: he turned my room into a nursery!" Ginny retorted.

Molly looked like she was about to go into a lecture, if the stern displeasure on her face was anything to go by. Harry glanced at his wristwatch and said, "Oh look at the time! We're running late; we should go." Then he took Ginny by the arm and pulled her out into the living room. "I really do think you look lovely tonight."

This time it was Ginny's turn to blush, the tips of her ears and her cheeks turning red. She ducked her head and said, "Thanks."

They flooed to the wizarding restaurant where all these dinners were held. Everyone was already there and turned to stare at their hero when they arrived. The press insisted on a few photos, both of the two of them alone and with a number of other guests of importance.

"Harry, what have you been up to since the war?" a male reporter asked.

"You mean since last week when you asked that?" Harry asked and the reporter nodded. In truth it had been a bit more than a week this time, since the last dinner was held exactly on the one month anniversary of the war, when they were usually held on Friday nights, like this one. "Well I've been spending time with my son, Leo Malfoy."

"You have a son?" the reporter asked.

"We speculated on that during the war; Draco Malfoy filed the paperwork reporting the child, but never permitted an interview. Is it really true then?" Another reporter, this one a female, stepped forward to ask, butting the first reporter out of the way.

"It is, but I'm not going to talk about that tonight," Harry answered.

There were more questions as the reporters tried to wheedle information out of Harry anyway. By the time they finished, the food was being served. They sat down to eat surrounded by people who all wanted a word with Harry, but they'd gone to enough of these before to be used to it. At least he thought so, but when dessert was being served, he noticed Ginny pouting.

"Care to go for a walk in the garden?" Harry asked, hoping to get away from the crowd.

Ginny agreed and the two of them walked outside. Harry cast a muffliato charm just in case they were followed and asked, "What's wrong?"  
"That Eloise noticed the stain on my blouse. She had the nerve to ask if the two of us had done something right before this to cause it," Ginny said angrily.

"Oh. Sorry," Harry said.

"Sorry? What did you do to my blouse, Harry?"

"Um, nothing! I swear."

"You better not 've. We should've just stopped by your place and gotten Malfoy to clean it. Now you look all put together and I look like a mess."

"He's not really the cleaning type. I sort of don't think that's a good idea…"

"Because he's upset I made his baby cry. Yeah, okay, I'll try to watch where the little brat is when I yell at you next time. I swear though, he's using that baby as a shield. Every time he acts like an arse now, the baby is right there."

"The baby is always right there."

"And he's always an arse."

"Point taken."

"If you're going to insist on keeping him around, then I want you to at least get that baby paternity tested, Harry. It's the least you can do."

"I already told you that it doesn't matter; I'm going to take care of Leo either way."

"You're unbelievable, you know that? I can't believe you're willing to just accept having Malfoy around all of the time like that," Ginny said and Harry just shrugged. "Fine, but don't come crying to me when he pulls something _and_ that baby turns out to not be yours.

"Alright. But, um, Ginny, there's sort of something I need to talk to you about," Harry said nervously, trying to approach this subject gently.

"Yes?"

"Well, it's just that Malfoy and I talked. He apparently believed all those stories about me, you know… And he, er, thought I was some sort of playboy that was going to have a different witch over to the house every night. He doesn't want that going on in front of Leo and I agreed, but he didn't take my word for it. He made me promise that I wouldn't have anyone over until I'd made a commitment to her. He said he'd do the same, so I won't have to worry about him bringing strange people around Leo either."

"So you just agreed to keep me away?" Ginny asked angrily.

"No! Well yes, but no, it won't be like that. I just need a little bit of time to arrange something special, to you know…and then it'll be official and you can come over as much as you'd like."

"Oh Harry!" Ginny squealed and jumped on Harry.

Harry caught Ginny in his arms with an, "Omphf!" He took advantage of the moment and held her body close to his. "Just until then, could you owl or fire-call me to come over to your place?"

"Alright, but you better hurry up."

"And next time you do come over, try to keep it down around Leo."

"I didn't even know he was there." Ginny sounded petulant again, as if it was all Draco's fault.

"Well if Draco's there, it's a good bet Leo is," Harry pointed out and Ginny nodded. "We've been out here a while; we better get back inside."

Ginny agreed. Dessert was over, so they picked up bottles of butterbeer and mingled with the other guests. Neville was there with his girlfriend Hannah, so they weren't totally out of place among the political figures. Thus Harry steered them towards Neville and Hannah.

The two couples exchanged greetings and then Hannah said, "Ginny, could I drag you into the loo for a minute?"

Ginny complied and the two witches were off.

"What was that about?" Neville asked.

"Women. They like to pee in packs," Harry dismissed. "How have you been, Neville?"

"Gosh, Harry, we only saw each other on Sunday for Ron and Hermione's going away dinner. I've just been helping Madam Sprout get the greenhouses back together, same as before. Have you heard from Ron and Hermione?"

They made small talk for a few minutes. Harry had indeed heard from his friends, who had written every other day with news. Ron and Hermione's mission to restore her parents' memories wasn't going well, but it was early yet.

When the girls returned, Ginny's face was a flaming shade of magenta that clashed with her hair. She was looking down at the ground, so as not to make eye contact. "Harry, we are going home," she said tersely.

"Now?" Harry asked surprised.

"Yes, right now," Ginny confirmed, pulling him in the direction of the fireplace.

Harry followed Ginny back to the Burrow, where he found her in the living room, tapping her shoe on the floor with her hands on her hips. He knew instantly that he was in trouble. "What's wrong?"  
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Ginny asked, her hands rising in the air for emphasis. "I'll tell you what's wrong. Hannah Abbott fixed my blouse. She recognized the stain and knew the spell to get it out. It only took her a second."

"That's great!"

"Is it? If she recognized it, then everyone else there probably did too. I had my _picture_ taken in this blouse after what _you_ did to it. It's going to be in all the papers. Mum and Dad are already mad about the sex; now they are probably going to think we were fooling around! Argh! I'm _sooo_ mad at you right now."

"Er…what kind of stain was it?" Harry asked, scared to find out.

"It was a bodily fluid removal charm Hannah used. Care to explain?"

If Ginny was mad now, Harry could only imagine how mad she'd be when she learned that Draco had thrown her shirt in the rubbish bin. "Um, no?" he asked.

"You stupid pig! You used my blouse to jerk off and then you _let_ me wear it out tonight and didn't say anything!"

"No. I didn't," Harry denied meekly, beginning to wonder whether or not Draco had.

"Then what _did_ you do with it!?"

"I didn't do anything. I put it in that sack and that was all."

"Ginny! Harry! What on Earth is going on?" Molly asked, coming down the stairs. She looked like she'd been getting ready for bed and was clearly tired.

"Mum, Harry ruined my blouse! It was obvious to everyone at the dinner," Ginny explained.

"No, I didn't," Harry insisted.

"Well you got it out now," Molly placated.

"Only just," Ginny said, her eyes dashing quickly to Harry and then back to Molly. He had the distinct impression that she wanted to tell on him, but didn't want her mother to know.

"It's late. You should go, Harry," Molly replied pointedly.

Wanting to get out of the situation, Harry was quick to agree. "Later Ginny," he said, giving her a quick kiss to her hair. Then he darted off through the floo.

* * *

Author's Note: Any guesses what Draco put on Ginny's blouse? I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose too… Which of the two of them seems worse so far?

Please do take the time to review. Your feedback is very important to the writing process and I would love to hear from all of you :D


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Your feedback is very much appreciated :)

* * *

Harry was in the Auror department discussing a new lead with Auror Belchinstein, who was better known as Belch or Belchy. This was his second morning this week spent at Auror Headquarters, and it was only Wednesday. Monday he'd come to talk to Katz about Draco's book of fertility spells; Katz being the Auror in charge of Malfoy Manor.

Katz produced Draco's book upon Harry's request, after clearing it for pertinent evidence to the whereabouts of Death Eaters. The book contained Draco's notes and everything looked to be exactly as Draco said: the spell requiring a preexisting relationship was used. There were notes on brewing the potion and on when Draco had performed the spell, but there were no notes or other indication that he'd ever bothered to read the introduction, where it mentioned the necessity of a relationship. And not just any relationship would work, it had to be a long lasting one filled with strong positive emotions; a relationship based on hate wasn't supposed to cut it.

Harry took his findings back to Robards, who sent the problem along to the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries to study. Maybe there was some loophole that they didn't know about that allowed Draco to conceive Harry's baby. Or maybe it was a one off; an abnormality that would never happen again, but just happened to work because it was Harry or Draco or the both of them. Whatever the case, it now lay in the Department of Mysteries for the Unspeakables to solve.

That left Harry free to focus on other matters, such as this thing he was working on with Belch. Belch had been the lead investigator on the Crabbe Cottage, looking for evidence of crimes and clues to where the remaining Death Eaters might hide. Only the cottage was small with few leads, so he'd already wrapped the investigation up. He was therefore available when Harry came in that morning with a new location Draco had just revealed.

True to his word, Harry hadn't invited Ginny over to Grimmauld Place, making for five days without the witch, so Draco was happy with him. Draco also really hated Fenrir Greyback and had spent an hour that morning listing out every werewolf he'd ever met or heard of, and their relation to Greyback. Greyback himself was dead, but he had a son named Deimos Greyback who he'd turned quite young after killing the mother. Deimos was trained to follow his father's footsteps. The son was still out there and was who the Aurors were planning on going after. Thanks to a detailed map Draco had just given them with known locations of Greyback's pack and Deimos, they finally had the leads to do so.

With the ties to Greyback, Harry was especially interested in this case. That was why he delivered the information in person and was currently trying to worm his way into the investigation. That and he was tired of being on vacation; he wasn't used to it.

Harry and Belch were deep in conversation discussing the merits of each location as a hideout, when they were interrupted by a young office assistant.

"Excuse me sirs, I'm so sorry to interrupt. But there's just been a fire-call for Savior Potter from St. Mungo's," the young secretary said.

"And? What'd they say?" Harry asked, hoping that one of his friends hadn't come across a runaway Death Eater. The war may be officially over, but there were still casualties happening all of the time.

"Draco and Leo Malfoy have been admitted for treatment. They were attacked in Diagon Alley."

Harry thanked the kid for telling him, quickly threw a few words at Belch to the affect that they'd continue the discussion later, and took off towards the floo. He rushed to Draco and Leo's side as quickly as he possibly could, but was waylaid by a nurse, who wanted to give him the status of their conditions.

"Draco came in with a sprained ankle and a scraped up arm. He took the brunt of the attack, but we were able to patch him up, good as new. Leo came in with several bruises and small scrapes. We healed him up too, but given his age we are watching him for signs of more serious injury," the nurse explained. "I do apologize, on the part of St. Mungo's hospital, for the confusion that happened when they were first brought in. I regret to say that Draco was at first mistaken for a Death Eater and was almost turned away. Luckily a supervisor was called and rectified the mistake."

"What happened to them in the first place? Why were they attacked?" Harry asked.

"They were attacked in Diagon Alley, that's all I know," the nurse replied.

Harry thanked the witch and then continued on his way to Leo and Draco's hospital room.

They had a room of their own, which was rather unusual this soon after the war, when all beds at all the wizarding hospitals in the country tended to be full. Leo was asleep in a crib by Draco's bed, while Draco was sitting up in bed and glaring at the door when it opened.

"Oh, it's you. Took you long enough. I thought for a moment it was going to be one of those bloody nurses back to bother me again," Draco said.

"And what have they been bothering you about?" Harry asked, taking the seat on the side of Draco's bed.

"They actually tried to turn us away! They don't have enough beds for Death Eaters, they said. Leo and I weren't injured enough to merit their time and precious resources. If it weren't for the fact that he looks just like you, that bitch wouldn't have even bothered calling her supervisor before throwing us out."

"Well you weren't badly injured, right? And they have been very busy since the war," Harry reasoned.

"I'm alright, but Leo was jostled pretty hard when I fell and hit his head. They are keeping him here for observations."

"Well I'm glad you were able to convince them to treat the two of you."

"I had to threaten to take their mistreatment of Harry Potter's son to the press. I said I was taking Leo to the Daily Prophet and let them photograph the little Potter baby covered in bruises and rejected from the only wizarding hospital in this part of the country," Draco revealed. For once Harry was happy the wizard was such a pain.

"Good. Now what happened in Diagon Alley? Who attacked you?"

"A couple of middle aged widows. I was just going to buy a few things for your house, now that Leo and I are living there. There's a linen store I like on the corner of Knockturn and Diagon that I went into with Leo. When we came out this lady I know came running at us. It was Twyla Avery, wife of the late Glaedwine Avery. He was a Death Eater who died in the final battle and she was mad at me, because my family betrayed them and changed sides. She came at me with a tripping hex and then yelled at me over Leo's cries in the middle of the square.

"Then some other widow I didn't know came running out of one of the other shops and starts yelling at me too and tossing rotten fruit at us," Draco continued. "Her husband was apparently in with your lot and died in the war, which was also my fault and it didn't matter that Leo was getting hit too. It was a group of Hogwarts age kids that broke it up, screaming at the old witches that that was Harry Potter's baby they were attacking; thank Merlin for school kids knowing the latest gossip in all things Potter. I apparated us to St. Mungo's as soon as I regained my feet, Leo screaming in my ear all the while. I needed a headache potion for the screaming alone."

"I need to file a report on this. Will you be okay here until I can come back?" Harry asked and Draco agreed flippantly.

Harry flooed back to the Auror Department and informed Head Auror Robards of what had happened. Robards was willing to take the case seriously, but he couldn't let Harry work it, because it was his family who were the victims. He sent ahead a pair of relatively new Aurors to take the case. After a brief reminder not to take the law into one's own hand and that justice was sweeter than revenge, Robards let Harry go.

On his way back to the floo, Harry ran into Arthur Weasley in the lifts. He told the wizard what had happened with Draco and Leo. Arthur offered his well-wishes and said he'd send Molly along to help out at home once Draco was released. Harry thanked the man and continued on his way.

Leo was still asleep in his crib when Harry returned, but Draco was being interviewed by the Aurors Robards had sent. Harry had to wait out in the hall, which was where he was when Ginny showed up.

"Harry!" Ginny called, throwing herself into Harry's arms, as if he'd been the one attacked.

"Ginny! What are you doing here?" Harry asked, hugging her back, before pulling away to look at her.

"Dad told me what happened."

"Yes, but remember that you can't be around Leo until we make it official?"

"I thought I'd offer you my support." It was a weak excuse and only partially hid the truth that she was jealous of Draco and Leo getting all of Harry's attention.

"The Aurors are in there questioning them now. I guess you could stay, but you have to stay out here," Harry said and Ginny reluctantly acquiesced.

They sat back together, holding hands, and waited, Harry filling Ginny in on what happened.

"Well I hope those women aren't punished; they lost their husbands in this mess and have a right to be angry," Ginny said when Harry finished.

"One of those husbands was a Death Eater and Leo was hurt when Malfoy fell," Harry retorted angrily.

Ginny shrugged. "The other lady then shouldn't be punished."

"The one who threw rotten fruit at my son when he was already injured and kept Malfoy down on the ground, instead of seeking immediate medical treatment?"

"Well she didn't know Leo was injured and she didn't do it. Her husband was killed because of Malfoy's lot. All she did was throw harmless food."

"Draco said Leo was screaming the entire time; she had to know he was injured."

"Babies cry."

"And Draco was critical to helping us win the war; he let us go and practically handed over a Horcrux."

"Yeah, except it was in a Gringott's vault guarded by a dragon and you had no way in. If Bill hadn't worked there and introduced you to that goblin Grimly who was part of that secret anti-human Goblin movement-"

"Yes I know," Harry interrupted. They had had to promise the goblins complete autonomous rule and freedom from the new government, even going so far as to sign a treaty, to gain access. It was only Harry and a bunch of Order members' signatures, but after the war Kingsley promised to honor it. That adventure was also the source of the wand he had used to defeat Voldemort, having won it off of a Death Eater named Travers in Diagon Alley on their way into the bank. "Let's just not talk about this anymore." And that affectively ended the discussion before their disagreement could become heated.

They sat there in awkward silence for another few minutes before Ginny said, "Well while you are all here, it's the perfect time to have a paternity test done."

Harry groaned. "Not this again."

"Yes this again, Harry. You yourself told me that the spell wasn't supposed to work without a relationship. How do you know that it didn't work and that Malfoy didn't use some other spell? The resemblance to you could be superficial!" The tone she used clearly indicated that this was what she was hoping for.

"I know Malfoy and I _know_ he's not lying about this. Even if he were, I still want Leo and this is neither the time nor the place to discuss it," Harry said.

That effectively shut Ginny up and she sat back on her chair, petulantly folding her arms while she tried to think of a better way to broach the subject again. But she didn't get the chance, because moments later the two Aurors on the case came out of the room and announced that they were off to Diagon Alley to gather evidence and look for witnesses. Harry thanked them, before going back into Draco's room. Draco was just crawling back into bed with a crying Leo.

"What's wrong? Should I call the nurse? Is he going to be alright?" Harry asked frantically, taking the few steps to the bed as Draco lay back, Leo on his chest.

"Calm down; I think he's just hungry," Draco replied, taking off his shirt to reveal a pair of very small breasts.

There was maybe an inch of tissue there puffed out around a pair of dark nipples that seemed rather large for a bloke. Harry watched enraptured by the sight, unable to take his eyes off of it as Draco positioned himself inside Leo's crying mouth. The cries were muffled and then replaced by the sound of suckling and still Harry watched.

"Ew! What are you _doing_, Harry!?" Ginny screeched from the doorway.

Harry tore his eyes away from Draco's chest to look over his shoulder and see Ginny watching him. Then he looked back to Draco, meeting Draco's accusatory stare.

"What is she doing here?" Draco asked incredulously, covering himself and the baby up with a sheet.

"Just checking to make sure you and Leo were alright. I'll just, erm, go wait out in the hall and send her home," Harry said, before turning and closing the door behind him.

"Why were you drooling over Malfoy in there?" Ginny asked, moving to stand in front of Harry, confronting him.

"I'd just never seen him feed Leo before," Harry tried to explain away with a shrug. "It was no big deal."

"You were staring at Malfoy's _breasts_ and you think it's _no big deal_?"

"He was feeding my son!" Harry defended himself as a pair of nurses stopped what they were doing and interrupted the argument.

"I'm sorry, but one of you will have to leave immediately. Otherwise we will be forced to call security and you both will have to go. This is a hospital and you are disrupting the patients," one of the nurses said with a tone of a reprimand. The other nurse was silent, with a stern look that backed up her partner.

"You better go, Ginny," Harry said sternly. He was not about to get kicked out of here because of her.

"So you're choosing him over me?"

"No, I'm choosing Leo. Now go home and I'll fire-call you later."

"Fine," Ginny said with a huff, turned on her heel, and finally left.

Harry was left to collapse into the chair in the hallway, wondering what that had just been about. Why was Ginny so unreasonable when it came to Draco and Leo?

It was half an hour more before Harry was allowed back into the room with Draco. Now that Leo was done eating, a nurse sent for the healer. Healer Strudwick was an elderly wizard with thick glasses and gnarled looking fingers. He went straight to Leo and began a thorough examination of the baby, ignoring the two adults in the room.

"Harry, I thought we made a deal that you'd keep Weasley away from us. And then when Leo is injured, what do you do? You bring your banshee with you to scream some more," Draco said, pulling Harry's attention away from the healer.

"Look, I didn't invite her, she just showed up, alright? I told her she had to wait out there if she was going to stay," Harry defended.

"She's not still out there!?" Draco's tone was incredulous.

"No, I sent her home."

"Good. I don't want her near Leo; especially not in his state."

"Fine. I'll try harder to keep her away."

"Do you have any idea how much stress she causes when she's around? It's not good for him."

"I said fine, what more do you want?" Harry asked exasperated.  
"This type of thing to stop happening. Every few days she shows up yelling. It's like that's her default state or something. Tell me, is effecting a normal tone of speech even possible for someone like her?"

"Yes. Can we stop talking about her? Please?"

"If you'll stop bringing her around."

"I said I would."

"Then do it."

"I tried."  
"Try harder."

"Fine."

"Good," Draco concluded. "And you'll have to go shopping with us soon; I didn't finish my shopping and it's not safe for us in public."

"Alright, but I want to buy Leo a pram while we're out. It's the one thing you don't seem to have and if you did, he wouldn't have fallen when you were attacked," Harry replied.

"No, but the pram might have rolled away and been run over. I had a great aunt die in a pram as a baby; no Malfoy has used one ever since."

"That's really too bad, but I'm sure something like that won't happen again."

"Certainly not, because I won't use one. They're not safe. I've seen one roll away into a river and drown the baby." Draco left out the subsequent rescue of the baby, because it was irrelevant.

"What if I throw every protection charm ever invented on the thing first? I'll charm it so that it floats up into the air if something is going to run it over. And I'll make it float in water, in case it ends up in a river."

"If it flies, the baby might fall out and die."

"I'll find one with sturdy safety straps and I'll find a million other charms to throw at it."

"We'll see. I reserve the right to toss it in the bin if it even looks the slightest bit unsafe."

"Alright," Harry conceded, thinking that was the best he was going to get out of Draco.

There was a quarter of an hour more of spell casting by the healer and recording notes in Leo's chart, which was mostly filled with silence from the pair of parents. Then the healer finished with Leo and folded up the chart.

"He's fine. You may take him home," the ancient wizard concluded briskly. Healer Strudwick had been a healer for about a century and had retired ages ago. But with the shortage of healers after the war, he'd been called back to service. As a result, he was out of practice dealing with patients and his bedside manner was severely lacking.

Healer Strudwick was attempting to stroll out of the room without further explanation when Draco stopped him. "Wait!" Draco exclaimed. "What about his head?" What if he goes to sleep and doesn't wake up?"

"He doesn't have a concussion, Mr. Malfoy. He will wake up," the healer drawled in a manner befitting the later Professor Snape.

"But are there any side effects I need to watch out for with those potions he was given? He's just a baby," Draco added.

"No, everything he was given is safe for infants," Healer Strudwick reassured in that non-comforting way of his. "Really, I was able to determine that he is a perfectly healthy little boy in the first five minutes of my examination. All of the rest of it was standard diagnostic tests and measurements that he should have had done at his standard three-month check-up. I had to do them, because his file was blank after the birth. If you want to do something positive for your son's health, find him a pediatric healer and take him for a routine check-up in three months."

While Draco was insisting that he wasn't neglectful and would've taken Leo in to a healer before now if not for the war, Harry was thinking about his earlier fight with Ginny. He wanted to put it all out of his mind and be there for his son, but he couldn't get her words out of his head. It occurred to him then that maybe this healer could provide some answers after all.

"Um, sir? Can I ask you something?" Harry asked, just as Healer Strudwick had once again turned to leave.

"Yes, Auror Potter? What is it?" the healer asked, with far more diffidence than he had shown for Draco. Apparently saving the world meant something to this old man; perhaps he had grandchildren.

"I was just wondering what you know about fertility spells? It's just that Malfoy here used one without my knowledge and as you can see by Leo's presence, it worked. Do you know how that's possible?" Harry asked.

"It's very simple Auror Potter. The spell works by measuring emotions, not by asking permission. It is irrelevant that you didn't give the go ahead. Next time I suggest you be more careful with regards to where you stick your tally-whacker and dole out your lust," Healer Strudwick said sternly.

"But that's just it! We never had sex. There was never any lust," Harry protested.

"That's just what you have told the papers to hide your illicit affair. Magic is less easily fooled; you and Mr. Malfoy have obviously had some form of sexual contact or desire at least once."

"Ah no, we haven't," Harry replied. "Not at all."

"No? Not even a kiss or a thought?" Healer Strudwick asked, looking from Harry, who shook his head, to Draco.

"No," Draco said, but blushed because there had been the occasional thought on his part.

The healer made a harrumphing sound and cast a spell. A ball of white light hit each young wizard on the side of the head. The balls appeared to go through their skulls, but changed direction upon exiting, so that they collided halfway between the two skulls in a burst of colorful light. The primary color in the burst was green, although there was also yellow green and at least two shades of blue present with a hint of violet.

"Ah-ha, strong emotion!" Healer Strudwick exclaimed. "I must say it is unusual for there to be no reds in the spectrum, but a hint of passion might've tipped the scales. There certainly is no hate or loathing."

"Sir, what did you do? What did we just see?" Draco asked.

"Primarily jealousy, envy, pleasure, and obsession, and lots of them. It was a spell to reveal emotions. Each emotion comes up a different color and you boys clearly _feel_ for each other," the healer answered.

"So that is why the fertility spell worked?" Harry asked.

"Yes, now if you boys will excuse me, I really must be going," Healer Strudwick said and strolled from the room, his lime green healer robes billowing out behind him.

"Mystery solved; let's go home," Draco concluded, gathering up his things, which included a large bag from the linen store. His purchases had been shrunk, but they were numerous and the bedding set, including new pillows, was bulky.

* * *

Author's Note: So there's the explanation for why the spell worked; well at least part of the explanation. The inspiration for the solution came from chatting with one of my beloved readers, glassf1re. What do you think? Does it properly explain how Draco was able to make it work? Do you think it'd work for him a second time? And do you think they need a paternity test, when Harry doesn't want one?

Please Review!


	7. Chapter 7

Draco must've been in a talkative mood, because that evening, after super, he said, "Potter, I think we need to talk about what happened today."

Harry had been about to pull out a book from the bookcase in the drawing room, but he pushed the book back into its spot, turned, and sat on the sofa instead. "Alright," he conceded.

Sitting on the armchair, Draco was crossing his arms defensively. "I don't like that I was attacked with Leo. All I was doing was buying curtains for the nursery and new linens for that awful room, and those two widows came for me. And the worst part is that Leo was caught in the middle and hurt. As a parent, failing to protect your child is one of the worst feelings imaginable."

"I'm sorry that happened and I'm grateful that the two of you are fine now. I think it'd be best if I went with you on shopping trips for now; just until the public realizes that you aren't a Death Eater anymore and leaves you alone."

"Alright, but it wasn't just a widow from your side who attacked me; I got it from both sides, starting with a Death Eater's widow. They blame me for being a Death Eater and they blame me for not being a Death Eater enough. I can't win."

"For now, but once the public cottons on to the fact that you're with me and that's my son you're carting around, then things will change. I won't say they will be better, because knowing Skeeter you'll still be attacked by reporters, but it will no longer be because people hate you."

"So you think that because people love you, that they'll stop hating me?"

"Yeah, basically."

"I think they'll hate me all the more, for having your baby when I don't deserve you. And what is worse, is that Leo will still be in the middle of it."

"Well then I'll have to make them see. I'm sure if they see us together enough as a family, then they'll figure it out. And I'll try to come up with something nice to say about you next time the reporters swarm me for a sound bite."

"And how are you going to reconcile our "family" with your dating Weasley?"

"Keep the two of you away from each other?"

"That would be nice for a start, but it's more than that. Rumors are going to fly. They are going to say that you are leading a double life; that you are with both of us romantically. And they are going to ask about Leo's conception."

Harry got the distinct impression that Draco didn't want the reporters digging into the circumstances surrounding Leo's conception. And given that Draco was already concerned with the public hating him, it was understandable. "Well Malfoy, what do you want me to tell them about it?"

"I don't want them to know it was anything other than the usual. I don't want Leo to know that he wasn't made in love or that he was just another chess piece at play in the war. I want him to feel loved and special. I want him to think you want him too."

"I do want him, honestly, I do. I've always wanted a family and Leo is great. I keep picturing having him and Teddy for the weekends. We'd do typical father-son things like going to the park and flying and I could read him a story at night."

"You could do some of those things now. Not the flying, but you could take him to the park or read to him. He likes when I read to him."

"You'd let me take Leo without you to the park?"  
Draco cringed at the thought. "When he's older, yes, but right now I would prefer to go with you. What if he gets hungry and I'm not there? Or what if he starts crying and you don't know what to do?"

Harry was a bit surprised that Draco was offering to go with, instead of flat out refusing the trip; it seemed like a rather grownup thing to do. Come to think of it, this entire conversation was rather adult of them. Maybe, if things kept going like this, they could eventually work their way up to acting like normal separated parents. It was a heartwarming thought that brought a smile to the corner of his lips. "Alright, you can come with me. Let's do the park soon. I'll fire-call Dromeda and see if she and Teddy can come."

"That sounds nice. And maybe you will turn out to be right about people thinking more highly of me, if I'm seen out with you. It couldn't hurt to try."

"Good. I'm glad we had this talk; that was a good idea," Harry said.

"We aren't done yet."

"We're not?"  
"No, we're not. Besides the fact that you haven't told me how you feel, we still have to talk about your girlfriend."

Harry didn't want to talk about Ginny, so he decided to go with the first topic and hope Draco would drop the second. "I'm supposed to tell you how I feel?"

"That is how it's generally done, yes. Whenever something happens with me, my parents sit our family down and we each tell each other how we feel. We don't do so outside the family," here Draco shuddered, "but within the family that is a privilege we enjoy with each other. It keeps families close. I know Leo's not old enough to participate yet, but I'd like to get things established early on so that we develop good habits."

"Alright, let me give it a go," Harry said, trying to think of how to put his feeling into words. It wasn't something he ever had to do before, not even with Ginny, but it sounded like the type of thing a healthy family might do. He wanted to have a healthy family, for his son's sake. "I was panicked when I heard, because I wasn't there and I didn't know what had happened or how bad it was. Then I was relieved when I found out that the two of you weren't hurt worse than you were. And I was happy when Healer Strudwick said Leo would be fine and we could take him home."

"Good to know. Is there anything else you want to add, or are you ready to move onto the topic of Weasley?"

His feelings exhausted, Harry saw no choice but to move on. "Look, I didn't invite her over and I told her she couldn't come into the room. I'm sorry she keeps screaming and upsetting Leo."

"She's not only upsetting Leo. She makes me feel like a criminal who has no right to be around you. Like I shouldn't be in your house, with your baby, and with you visiting us in hospital. I'm some sort of scum that is supposed to stay hidden on the bottom of her shoe, only I keep popping up in front of her."

There was a long silence then as Draco waited for a response and Harry felt increasing pressure to say something. Draco was looking at him expectantly, clearly waiting, and refused to say anything until he did. Only he didn't know what to say. Finally, he just blurted out what was on the tip of his tongue, "I don't know what to do about that. She's my girlfriend, so she's going to be around sometimes, even if I try to keep her away. She doesn't like you and it's hard for me to blame her."

"Because you blame me too."

"No, not as much as she does. Are you forgetting the Chamber of Secrets? Your family has done a lot of nasty shite to her."

"That was my father, not me. I suppose the son is guilty of his father's crimes and Leo will spend his lifetime paying for mine and my father's."

"No, it's not like that."

"It's not? Leo won't have my mistakes hanging over his head like I have my father's?"

"No, he won't. I won't let it be like that. And I won't let Ginny keep holding what your father did over you, but there are still plenty of things you personally have done to her and her family. And when you do see her, you always have a nasty or snide remark for her; that's what I was mostly referring to when I said I could see why she dislikes you. Try being nice to her if you want her to be nice to you." That came out rather well and Harry started feeling proud of himself, like he could do this being an adult thing.

"Even if she doesn't like me, she shouldn't be transferring the blame to Leo. If this keeps up, he's going to grow up thinking that he's not wanted. If you have children with her, she's not going to include them in with him. He's going to be the unwanted stepson."

"I don't want that. I guess I can talk to her about the screaming…"

"You need to do more than talk to her about the screaming. She either needs to accept Leo in your life or _never_, not even for a nanosecond, be present at the same time and place, even if it's just waiting out in the hall. I won't have my son treated that way. It's not fair to him. He didn't ask to be born into this mess, so he shouldn't be the one to suffer for it. If I have to pay, so be it, but he won't."

"What do you mean, if you have to pay?"

"I was betrothed to Pansy Parkinson. Obviously that future is lost to me now. Instead of being forced into an unhappy marriage, I'll be a single father. Instead of finding another adult to love, I'll be alone with Leo, with only him to love. I won't get the daughter or the spouse I always wanted; I could do without Pansy and I'm glad to be rid of her, but I always imaged that I would have what my parents have with someone. Now no one will want me, because of all the baggage I come with. I don't just have a child with someone, I have a child with someone who hates me and whose girlfriend loathes me."

Harry had never thought about what Draco was giving up, but now the sympathy crept up on him and he felt a pang in his heart for the wizard. Maybe, just maybe, he should try to make things easier for Draco. "I don't hate you. And I'll have a talk with Ginny about Leo."

Draco nodded curtly and rushed off to his room, his face an unreadable mask. Harry sat there on the sofa and wondered about what had just happened and why Draco had rushed off so quickly. Might Draco have been crying?

The promising lead on Greyback's son from that morning was completely forgotten in the turmoil of the day. The Aurors worked it without Harry and wouldn't have let Harry go out in the field on this one even if he had pressed them on it, because he simply didn't have enough training.

* * *

They did go shopping the next day. The reporters were on them before they even exited out of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which they had flooed into, specifically trying to avoid the mob that followed Harry. Outside the shop, which George later said was brilliant publicity, the three of them posed for a photo and Harry even gave a sound bite.

"Yesterday, my son, Leo, and his father were attacked right here in Diagon Alley while trying to shop peacefully. Leo was injured and had to be taken to St. Mungo's. Is this the thanks I get for destroying Voldemort for you people? I don't appreciate my family being attacked and it needs to stop immediately. Consider this fair warning, because next time it happens, I'll go after the culprit like I would Voldemort himself." Harry wouldn't have said it to protect himself, but he did it for Leo.

Draco, it turned out, wanted books and a new owl, since his owl had also been killed during the war. For Harry, the owl emporium was just a little too soon, because the wound from losing Hedwig was still too new, so he waited outside, holding Leo. By the time Draco came back with his new eagle owl, Harry had drawn a small crowd of admirers, asking about and cooing over Leo. Then they went into the bookstore together, Harry taking Leo over to look at the baby books. Their final stop was the baby store.

There were a number of things Harry wanted in relation to his planned proposal to Ginny, but he decided not to buy any of them with Draco looking over his shoulder. He did, however, buy a very expensive double pram that was already charmed with dozens of safety features, including that it recognized the parents and wouldn't let someone else just walk off with the baby nor roll without someone actively pushing it. Harry would still have to ask Hermione to help him add a few more safety features, such as floating, but having it partially pre-charmed would save him loads of time. And it was a double, which meant that there was room for Teddy.

* * *

That night, Draco called Harry into the nursery to help him put Leo to bed. "Here," he said, handing Harry a children's book about magical ducklings. There was soft lullaby music coming from a Wizard's Wireless in the corner, giving the air a tranquil feel. Every so often the radio would let out a tweet, peep, cheep, or even the occasional twitter sound, as if it was determined to be the soundtrack for the night's story.

Harry opened the book, holding it out above the crib for Leo to see, since the baby had already been dressed in pajamas and put down. It was a bit of an awkward position for reading, but he wanted his son to be able to see the bright colorful pictures and the letters were large enough for him to make out at an angle. Besides, there was only one seat in the room, the rocking chair, and Draco was already sitting in it.

"Oooo," Leo cooed excitedly, flapping his hands in the direction of the book. He was sitting up on his own unassisted. With all the contraptions Draco had and the amount Leo was held, Harry hadn't realized his son was so proficient at sitting, but he was. All of that time the baby spent squiggling on his side must've been by choice.

"Alright Leo, let's see," Harry started, looking at the title page with four colorful ducks. "The Four Magical Ducklings." Then he wondered if he was doing it right and turned to look at Draco, who was watching him from the rocking chair. He locked eyes with Draco; was Draco judging him? Was there something else he was supposed to be doing? Draco always seemed to talk with his hands, acting out the story with his body and Harry wondered if that was what he was supposed to be doing too. Should he try to act out a duck?

Draco smirked and made a circular motion with his hand that seemed to say, "Get on with it."

Harry looked back to Leo and the book. He turned the page and read, "Blue duck, red duck, yellow duck, green. Four magical ducklings." He pointed to the proper colored duck as he read and then turned the page, the radio making the sound of a scale played on a xylophone. "Blue duck jumps and flaps his wings, magic blowing in the breeze. The mossy log provides a safe landing, away from the dangerous grindylows below in the bog." Another page turn, again with the accompanied xylophone. "Red duck lands in the muck, what bad luck, his shoddy spell casting surely sucks." Page. "Mellow yellow duck shrugs and goes the long away around; he doesn't ruffle his feathers with a charm or a twitter, not when it could mess up his crown!" Another turn of the page. "Lucky green duck breathes in deep and takes a running leap; magic catching under wing, green duck jumps clear across the muck with a, 'Cheep, cheep, cheep!'" A final page turn and the triumphant call of a trumpet from the radio. "The end."

That was the shortest book Harry could remember reading, ever. It certainly wasn't the best either. He looked down at Leo, trying to judge what affect the story had on his son. It was supposed to be a bedtime story, but if anything it had excited the kid, because Leo was happily munching on his fingers, drool running down his hand, while he bounced on his bottom. It definitely hadn't put the baby to sleep, but Harry had to admit that Leo certainly liked to be read to.

"What now?" Harry asked, cocking his head to the side to see Draco, while still keeping Leo in his sight.

"Now we turn off the light and sit quietly until he gets tired of us, lays down, and puts himself to sleep," Draco answered, before casting a Nox on the lights.

Harry stood awkwardly over the crib for a minute, his eyes adjusting to the dark. There was a Clabbert-shaped nightlight that emitted a small amount of light, which shined off of Leo's open green eyes.

"How long does this take?" Harry whispered.

"As long as it takes. Longer if you don't shut it, PaPa."

"But his eyes are wide open—I can see—maybe he's not sleepy."

"He will be. One more peep out of you and I'm kicking you out of the room, PaPa."

"Alright _Father_," Harry emphasized, since Draco insisted on calling him that pompous version of papa, "but he's staring at me. Are you sure we shouldn't leave the room or do something? Don't you normally sing?" Harry could recall a great many times when Draco's singing could be heard in Grimmauld Place and they'd only been here a little over a week. The radio was still emitting soft noise, although the nature of it seemed to have changed to boring soothing sounds. Why wasn't it playing a lullaby at least?

"If we both leave, he'll scream and never go to sleep. And I only sing to calm him down and get him in the mood for bed, because it entertains him and keeps him up. Now out with you; you're keeping him awake!" Draco hissed quietly, clearly irritated by Harry's inability to just shut up and be quiet.

"Fine. Night Leo, PaPa loves you," Harry whispered, leaning down to kiss Leo on top of his messy head of hair.

Then Harry exited the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Draco to the seemingly impossible task of putting a baby to sleep by doing nothing for a sufficient period of time. He was about to head upstairs to his own room to bathe, but then he heard the sound of Leo's whining cry and it stopped him. He thought Leo was crying for him, because he left and Leo wanted him, which brought a smile to his face. He hesitated a moment and then leaned up against the door.

Draco's voice was soft and soothing. It was muffled by the door, but Harry had heard the formally unfamiliar song enough times in the last week to recognize it as Schlafe, mein Prinzchen. He'd gotten the translation of the title, which was Sleep, My Little Prince, from Draco the other day, but didn't know the other words.

_I knew it! He does sing Leo to sleep!_ Harry thought to himself. A year ago he would've ascribed a malicious motivation behind the deception, but now he didn't. He just thought that Draco wasn't yet ready to share all of the secrets of bedtime. Maybe Draco worried that if Harry knew, then Leo could be taken away and Draco left behind. Or maybe Draco simply didn't realize what he was doing.

* * *

The new pram wasn't yet ready the next day for their trip to the park with Teddy, but that was alright, because Draco was used to carrying Leo on his hip. Dromeda had Teddy's single pram and no qualms about using it, so Harry pushed the newborn in it, Dromeda walking alongside. Both babies were too little to enjoy the playground or the little duck pond, but they spread out a picnic blanket in the shade and enjoyed the light breeze. They brought snacks and drinks with them and sat there chatting and having a nice time. Harry mostly listened as Draco and Dromeda got to know each other, each telling stories about the person they had in common in their lives: Narcissa.

And then Leo exclaimed, "Guck!" and lurched out towards the grass, falling onto his stomach from his formally sitting position.

They all looked up at the baby, Draco pausing mid-sentence in telling Dromeda about something his mother had done when he was little. Sure enough, one of the ducks had waddled towards the picnic blanket and was pecking at something in the grass a mere ten feet away.

"Guck! Guck!" Leo exclaimed again. He was reaching his little hands out towards the bird, which took off several feet into the air, squawking, and lurked backwards, away from the baby.

"Oh, my word," Dromeda said, reaching her hand towards her mouth in surprise.

"He just said duck! That's his first word," Draco said excitedly.

"Guck! Guck! Guck!" Leo continued, yelling louder.

"Do you think he got that from the book I read him last night?" Harry asked, also excited.

"Yes, I read it to him all the time. Quick, transfigure his teddy bear into a harmless duck," Draco answered, Leo's cries increasing in fervor as he didn't get what he wanted.

"What?" Harry questioned.

"Transfigure this stuffed animal into a duck." Draco was shoving the toy at Harry now.

"Why me? Why can't you do it?" Harry was worried he might do it wrong, leave a sharp talon on, and accidentally get Leo hurt. He trusted Draco with Leo more than he trusted himself.

"Because if you haven't noticed, I failed sixth year transfigurations and was too busy having a baby last year to make it up. I can mostly only transfigure inanimate objects. And I only got into the NEWT level class because I can transfigure an apple into a dragon. He's not asking for a dragon, he's asking for a duck."

At this point Leo was no longer shouting anything recognizable as a possible word, but screaming at the top of his lungs, clenching and unclenching his hands in a fruitless attempt to reach the bird, which had flown clear away of the noisy little human.

"Oh give it here, you two," Dromeda intervened, seizing the stuffed toy and instantly transfiguring it into a living duck, only without the claws or the sharp beak.

Dromeda handed over the toy to Leo; the duck tried to squawk in protest, but the noise was muffled by its soft cloth beak. Leo stopped crying immediately, clutching the toy tightly. The baby rolled over onto his back, clutched the struggling pseudo-animal to his chest, and laughed, tears still glistening on his cheeks.

Draco leaned over and wiped the little face with a burp cloth. "There, you got your duck. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Harry stared on in amazement of the whole situation, from Leo saying his first word to actually getting his way by his great aunt transfiguring a toy into a living duck. Harry recalled his own childhood when all he had to play with were stones, cheap toy soldiers, and Dudley's castaways. No one would ever have given him a duck if he'd asked for one, no matter how big of a fit he'd thrown. But maybe Draco would've gotten his way. Draco, who was as spoiled as Dudley.

"You're spoiling him, aren't you?" Harry accused Draco.

"What?" Draco asked surprised, not knowing what Harry meant.

"You are giving our son every little thing he wants. Now it's a duck, next it'll be a dragon."

"A dragon would be easier for me to do," Draco admitted, not getting Harry's point at all.

"You can't just give him everything he wants, right when he wants it."

"Why not? That's what my parents did with me."

"And look how spoiled you turned out. He needs to learn that he can't always get what he wants and that he has to work for it."

"He's a baby; he's not going off to work in a factory to earn a toy. He said the word. Duck's a hard word to say for a four and a half-month-old baby," Draco argued.

"Okay, maybe indulging him this once is okay, but did it really have to be a living duck? Look, it's almost gotten away from him." Harry pointed to the duck, that was flapping its wings in an attempt to break free, but was held onto by one ankle in Leo's chubby little hand.

"Transfigure its bones back to cotton then." Draco reached over to grab hold of the duck around the body, but it was harder to do than it looked, because the bird was moving. Thankfully Leo found the whole thing amusing and was laughing as he held on.

"Why don't you do it?" Harry asked Draco.

"Because if I do it, the bones might break instead of turning into cotton. Do you really want our son's first duck to suffer so, PaPa?"

Just then the bird broke free from both Leo and Draco and flapped its wings once to gain altitude. Harry jumped and caught it around the mangled leg. He held it by the neck, steadied his wand, and transfigured it back into a stuffed animal, although retaining the duck shape. "There. Leo shouldn't be given real animals to play with; he can have stuffed ones," Harry said handing the toy back over to Leo, who sat up to reach for it.

"Guck?" Leo asked in a much more subdued tone, clutching the animal to his chest as he sat on his bum.

"Yes Leo, this is your toy duck. The other duck is too wild for a baby," Harry replied.

"Guck guck?" Leo asked.

"Yes, it's still a duck, Leo, it's a toy duck. Father can charm it to chirp, can't you?" Harry asked Draco.

Charms were something Draco was proficient in. He quickly cast a few spells on the stuffed toy, making it seem more lifelike. Now it ruffled its feathers, held its wings aloft, opened and closed its eyes, and made loud quacking sounds.

"Guck!" Leo exclaimed excitedly, tossing the stuffed bird into the air. He watched as it flapped its wings and came down nearby, a foot in front of him. He plopped himself onto his stomach, and scooted and wiggled as best he could. But he couldn't crawl yet, so he couldn't reach the bird.

Draco handed Leo back the stuffed toy. "I don't see what the big deal was about. It wasn't dangerous; Aunt Dromeda saw to that," Draco said. "I bet my cousin was given live animals to play with."

They both looked then to Dromeda, who said, "If it shut Dora up, you bet I did. But leave me out of this; this argument is between you two parents to figure out."

"The big deal is that I don't want him getting used to getting his way all of the time. Think how much of a nightmare he'll be when he's a toddler if you spoil him rotten now," Harry replied.

"I have to spoil him; he's a Malfoy and it's expected of a Malfoy to be spoiled. If I don't, I'll be accused of neglecting the Potter baby. There will be stories in the Prophet about how he's not being treated like any other Malfoy would. Then you will convince the Wizengamot to take him away from me and give him to your Weasley."

"Trust me, with the way Ginny is about him, I wouldn't want her having him. And if anyone does accuse you of neglecting him, I'll go on the record saying that it is me who doesn't want him to have live animals yet."

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise," Harry reassured.

"Did you hear that, Aunt Dromeda?" Draco asked.

"Yes, and I'll testify to it in a court of law," Dromeda answered with a bored drawl, knowing what her nephew was after.

During Leo's entire adventure with the ducks, Teddy was lying quietly in his bouncer chair. He let out squeaks of excitement too and grabbed at his toy bar, since he couldn't reach the actual duck. When the bird almost got away, Teddy's eyes jumped immediately to Harry catching it. He'd tried to hold his own hands out in hopes of getting a chance with the new toy, but he was once again overlooked by the older baby. Well if he couldn't get a duck of his own, maybe he could make one.

Harry looked over to Teddy, checking that his godson was okay. Teddy was fine, except he had a contemplative look on his face, like he was concentrating very hard on something. Harry guessed it was a turd and hoped Dromeda would change it.

In the meantime, Leo rolled over onto his side and fell asleep, his duck pressed to his chest. Free of its keeper, the bird struggled slowly, but surely it went. It broke free and paused in front of Teddy's chair, letting out a loud squawk. To which Teddy replied, "Uuuh.

Dromeda picked the toy up and handed it over to Teddy, who squealed with delight. He put the soft beak of the toy in his mouth first, then he grunted and appeared to be taking a dump. He squirmed, grunted, and pushed and then a beak popped up on top of his nose. It was a small beak at first that barely covered his little nose, but then he kept right on grunting and squirming until the appendage grew and resembled a full-sized beak.

Harry was the first one to notice, "Hey everyone, look at Teddy. He's trying to _look_ like a bird!"

Draco and Dromeda looked. "Dora started doing that around the same age, but I think she was a little older at the time.

"So Teddy changed into his first animal and Leo said his first word today. And here you were, PaPa, thinking that our boys were too little to do anything with," Draco said with a smirk, laying back on the blanket with his hands under his head.

"I guess you were right. Thank you for the nice family outing."

Draco had been thinking of all of the snarky retorts he could use, but none of them worked well in back of Thank you. Thus he nodded and kept his comments to himself.

* * *

Author's Note: So what do you think? My daughter used to tell me the word guck all the time when she was a baby.

Up next Harry will propose to Ginny. Does anyone have any ideas?

Please Review!


	8. Chapter 8

That Saturday Harry put aside to prepare everything he'd need to propose to Ginny. He went shopping for the second time that week, this time without Draco, and bought a ring and a new set of dress robes; he'd had to buy new ones, because Draco was not willing to clean for him again. He'd contacted Molly earlier in the week about making a family dinner and inviting the whole Weasley clan over; she was going to make Sunday dinner anyway, so she only had to contact Percy, George, and Charlie about coming after all. And he decided what he was going to say; ultimately he went with keeping it short, so he wouldn't stick his foot in his mouth.

Ron came back that weekend, without Hermione. Their mission wasn't going well and she'd stayed behind to see it through, while he'd come back for Auror training, which was to start the following Monday. The start of Auror training was one of the reasons Harry wanted to get it done that weekend. The other of course being that Draco had forbidden Ginny from coming around Leo until their relationship was official.

Draco was still staying with Harry at Grimmauld Place, taking care of Leo. It really didn't seem like he ever did much, but then Leo was a lot of work. The only thing Draco did seem to be doing was slowly taking over the place, leaving more and more of his stuff all over the house. Once the nursery was complete, he'd started on redecorating Hermione's old room with the linens purchased the day they ended up in hospital; thankfully Harry had ordered Kreacher to tell him before following Draco's orders to toss anything. Harry happened to be there at the time and managed to get all of her things into a sack _without_ first being chucked. This morning Draco seemed to be taking the drawing room over the way he was leaving his things all over the room.

Harry considered inviting Draco and Leo to the engagement dinner. Draco was part of his family now and he wanted his son to be there, but he decided against it. He didn't want to chance Draco ruining it. Draco seemed to be still mad about the times Ginny's screaming and yelling had disturbed Leo and sneered whenever Harry mentioned her. Thus it was best if Draco wasn't there and Harry didn't even bother asking if Leo could go without Draco, because he knew Draco would say no.

A cool breeze ran through the warm summer night air as Harry and the Weasleys gathered around the fold-out table set up on the Weasley's lawn, since the full family was too large for the kitchen. Several mouths watered as they waited to dig into the feast of Molly's amazing cooking. The smell of her delicious Sheppard's pie was add last, as the large rectangular shaped extra-large pie was levitated out from the kitchen, steam visibly wafting off of it. Even the gnomes fighting in the garden paused to sigh appreciatively at the smell.

The palms of Harry's hands were sweating profusely as the moment neared, the underarms of his shirt feeling moist. This was an important event for him. He reckoned that it would be one of the most important moments of his life if everything worked out the way he hoped. He wanted to remember the occasion forever, so he looked to each person, taking in their appearance and stowing the information away in his memory.

Fleur was radiant as she leaned into Bill, whose arm was affectionately draped around her middle, pulling her tighter. Molly and Arthur, holding hands and exchanging heartfelt looks, were across from Harry and seemed just as in love as ever. Then sat Charlie awkwardly next to Percy, the two brothers not having had much of a chance to reconnect after Percy's turnaround. Percy's mousy looking girlfriend sat abandoned and looking forlorn next to him at the end.

On the other side of the table was George, flanked be Lee Jordan on one side and Angelina on the other, needing his two best friends to help him get through the family dinner without Fred by his side. George was laughing and joking, but his face seemed tight and the jovial sounds had a forced ring. On Harry's other side at the end was Dromeda, grey streaked hair and heavy wrinkles marking her aging, but with a straight back and a strong will to continue; Teddy was asleep in the house he knew, with a monitoring charm set to make sure they were alerted if he stirred. Next sat Ron, looking out of place without Hermione by his side, but chatting amicably with Dromeda. And then, right next to him, was Ginny.

Long vibrant red hair gleamed as it caught the sunlight and clashed with the pastel yellow dress Ginny wore. Her smile softened her strong jaw and her eyes were filled with happiness and merriment. In that moment, she was his dream. She was the person Harry had survived the war for and the person he'd come back to after his death in the forest. She was perfect.

"Before we begin, I believe Harry has something he would like to say," Arthur announced, flashing Harry a smile of approval.

"Er, thanks, Mr. Weasley." Harry's nerves led to a bit of clumsiness. As he stood, his foot caught on the bench and he tripped, falling back down and catching himself on the table with the palms of his hands, making the punch inside its decorative bowl splash back and forth. "Opps. Excuse me." He rose a second time and this time cleared the bench, allowing him to kneel in front of Ginny, who was still seated on the bench right next to him, but had turned to the side to face him. "Um, Ginny, would you, ah, marry me?" Harry asked, holding out the opened box with the ring.

"Yes!" Ginny answered giddily, jumping into Harry's arms.

Ginny had been hot and cold with Harry since the night of the Ministry dinner. He was pleasantly surprised that she was being so receptive to him now. _I must make her happy_, he thought with a large dopey smile on his face. Finally everything was settling in. He was marrying his dream woman, joining the family he'd wanted to be a part of since he was eleven years old, and he had Teddy and Leo.

Just as Ginny had prophesized, the papers had had a field day with the white stain on her blouse. They hadn't just speculated, but gone so far as to make up reports of her being seen sucking him off just before the dinner. Draco had then taken it upon himself to write to the papers, informing the people of the nation that it hadn't been Harry who she was with right before the dinner, because Harry had been at Grimmauld Place with him and not her. Given that the other lead story following the dinner was the fact that Draco had had Harry's baby, rumors went flying and stories of trouble in paradise had been printed every day since, helped out by the shopping trip he'd gone on with Draco and Leo and being spotted together in the park. It was now speculated that she was involved with another bloke, who she'd been with just prior to the dinner, in retribution for Harry cheating on her with Draco.

Molly at least knew the truth about where Ginny had been, but she jumped to different conclusions and decided that the stain must have come from sexual activity the last time Ginny had worn the blouse the week before the dinner. And since Molly and Arthur had just learned that Ginny was sexual active, they weren't hearing any of Harry's protests otherwise. Harry distinctly got the impression that the Weasley parents were pushing him to go ahead with the engagement as quickly as possible, because they thought that this engagement was the only proper way to rectify this situation. Since that was what Harry wanted, he decided not to press the issue.

"There's no one who's happier for this lousy sod more than me," Ron proclaimed, clapping his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Now let's eat."

That was seconded and the large party soon sat down to feast and celebrate. It was a good night. Ginny was happier than Harry had ever seen her and she made sure to transfer that happiness into attention and affection towards him. It was like old times and suddenly they were snogging teenagers in the Gryffindor common room again. Only this time, they didn't have a care in the world, since Voldemort was good and dead. There was a bubble of euphoria surrounding them wherever they went, offering hope as to how wonderful life would be once they were married and living the rest of their lives together.

Harry was in such a good mood that it didn't even occur to him that not everyone would be happy for him. He went home that night with a grin from ear to ear and fell back on the sofa in a state of euphoria, heedless of the fact that Draco and Leo were already on the sofa.

"Are you drunk?" Draco asked, sounding disgusted with Harry. He had been burping their child while listening to the radio. Leo wasn't easily burped these days, since he was so mobile and didn't think he had to sit still for it. But when it was this late and Leo was this tired, he put up with it. Draco wasn't at all pleased by Harry's state or the fact that Harry was so close to the baby in such a state.

"No," Harry said, before letting out a small alcoholic burp. "Maybe a little." He hadn't really been paying attention to what or how much he was drinking. Most of his present state was due to the extreme happiness he felt, not the alcohol.

"The Weasleys are a bad influence on you. Stay away from Leo after being with them. I have half a mind to ban all the Weasleys from coming near him and not just your banshee."

"Oh, Ginny! But you don't have to worry about her anymore."

"Did you two break up then?" Draco was pleased by this idea.

"No, we're engaged. Now I can bring her around Leo again."

"You're what?" Draco's voice was an icy fury.

"Engaged. I asked her to marry me tonight and she said yes." Harry was too pleased with himself to notice Draco's mood.

Draco simply cast an ice water charm at Harry's bits and stormed off to the nursery, Leo still on his shoulder, leaving the radio going.

Harry screeched and his hands darted to cover his bits after the fact. At least the ice water had the effect of sobering him up enough to enable him to cast a drying charm on himself. Then he slumped over and fell asleep right there on the drawing room sofa, radio still playing.

* * *

Draco came back later that night with a Sober-Up potion and after turning the music off, woke Harry up. He forced Harry to drink it, before saying, "Potter, we need to talk."

"Again? Didn't we just do that?" Harry asked, sitting up and yawning.

"Yes, again. Every time you upset me, I'm going to want to talk about it. Stop upsetting me if you don't want to talk."

"Er, why are you upset now? I did what you wanted; I made a commitment to Ginny so that I could bring her around Leo."

"I would rather you marry a blast ended skrewt! I told you how awful she is to Leo and why I don't want him growing up around someone who hates him. Have you at least talked to her about what we talked about?"

Harry and Ginny never talked. Or if they talked, it was never about feelings or anything important. They'd talk about sex and Quidditch and which funerals they were going to attend. He'd gone over to the Weasleys a couple of times since promising Draco to talk to her about Leo, but each time he'd forgotten. George had a new invention that he just had to see right that minute or they needed to decide if they were going to the next Ministry thing right then and there or they happened to have the next fifteen minutes to sneak away for a bit of snogging. Whichever excuse it was, he'd let the resolve slip in the face of Ginny and the daunting task of talking to her about something serious.

"No, but I'm going to. I've been meaning to, but I keep forgetting," Harry replied.

"Do you even know what it's like not to feel wanted? I know everyone worshipped you and you were probably spoiled worse than me growing up, but there were people who I wasn't welcomed by, because of my father. Slughorn was one of them; he was good friends with my grandfather and my father was part of his little club back in the day. But, it didn't matter how well I did in his class, because the son of a Death Eater wasn't welcome with him. Let me tell you; it felt bloody awful the way he treated me, especially on top of all of the stress I was under from the Dark Lord and everyone hating me because my father was captured attacking you. I wouldn't wish a moment of that on my son."

"I do know what's it's like," Harry answered softly. He was feeling the emotions of Draco's admission and instead of getting angry, he actually felt like baring his inner feelings for once.

"You do? Oh, Umbridge, right?"

"Her, but not just her. My relatives too."

"Your relatives don't worship you?" Draco asked, looking at Harry with wide, concerned eyes for the first time. The look wasn't pity, but warm somehow, as if Draco's disbelief was because the Dursleys would have to be crazy not to want Harry.

"No," Harry admitted, before giving Draco a brief synopsis of what his life growing up had been like.

When Harry finished, Draco replied, "Wow, I don't know what to say. No child, not even a speccy scar-head like you should be treated like that by their family."

"Thanks."

"So you know even better than I do how awful it feels to be unwanted, especially by your family."

"Yes, I believe I do."

"Then how can you be okay with your son going through that pain? Don't you want him to have a better life than you? I know I want him to have a better one than I have had; that is why I bowed out of the war and promised that I would never be a Death Eater again. That's why I let you go and gave you the information you needed to defeat the Dark Lord." Draco's tone was open and honest.

"I haven't really thought about it, but I guess you're right; I don't want that for him. I'll talk to Ginny," Harry said reluctantly. It felt like he was being pulled in two directions. On one side was Leo with Draco and on the other was Ginny. The Weasleys and his friends would probably side with her, but Dromeda and Teddy, if their trip to the park was anything to go by, might just prefer Draco and Leo. Whenever he chose to spend time with one of them, it was like being pulled away from the other. Draco was demanding he talk to Ginny and she would probably say Draco and Leo were taking over his life and demand he cut them out.

"Remember what I said about this situation not being fair to Leo and about Weasley either growing up and treating him properly or staying away. That holds true even if you are engaged to her now," Draco gave one final warning.

"Alright, I'll talk to her tomorrow, I promise," Harry said yawning again.

Draco nodded and then they both went off to bed.

* * *

Author's Note: No one seemed much enthusiastic about the engagement, so I kept it short. Up next Harry will have that talk with Ginny…I wonder how that should go. Do you think she'll finally manage to take something well for once? She did just apparently win, having gained Harry's engagement ring on her finger. She might be able to afford a bit of charity for her fiancé's son. On the other hand, I see another clash between Ginny and Draco in the near future.

Please Review!


	9. Chapter 9

Harry was busy all the next day with Auror training with Ron. That night when they got off they picked up Ginny and went to a pub in Ottery St. Catchpole for some butterbeers. Ron had suggested they go back to Grimmauld Place to drink, but after the way Draco reacted to Harry coming home drunk the night before, he didn't want to risk it. He had something important to do tonight.

It wasn't until several drinks in that Harry worked up the courage to tackle the task as hand. "Ron, would you mind going home early, so that I can talk to Ginny alone?" Harry asked when Ginny got up to use the loo.

"What do-" Ron started to say, but cut himself off mid-sentence. "Ah, fiancé shite! I got it. I'll bugger off right away."

"Thanks Ron; you're the best mate a bloke could have," Harry replied, clapping Ron on the shoulder.

Ron chugged the last two inches of his beer, turned on the spot, and with a wink, apparated away.

When Ginny returned from the loo, she sat down next to Harry and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek, before looking around for her brother. "Where's Ron?"

"Went home. I asked him to; we need to talk," Harry answered. Somehow those last four words had sounded alright when used between him and Draco, but felt like ice water over the head when they tumbled out of his mouth now.

Ginny blanched white, then shook it off, and asked, "What about? The wedding?"

"No, not the wedding. We'll need to talk about that too at some point, you know, plan it and everything," Harry answered and Ginny seemed to calm down now that she knew the marriage was still on. "It's about Leo." At the mention of his son, her expression turned sour, but at the name that was to come next, she scowled. "Malfoy and I talked-"

"_Malfoy_ and you _talked_?" Ginny asked angrily, letting her fury show.

"Yes, we talked."

"Is that where you got the idea for this little chat? Because it doesn't sound at all like you Harry." Ginny's tone was biting and accusatory.

"Yes, it is. I thought it was a good idea."

Ginny just made a scoffing sound and looked away, like Harry wasn't even worth looking at right now.

"Leo. We talked about Leo and what we want for him," Harry continued. It was now or never and he wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing. "Neither of us want him growing up feeling unloved or unwanted. Malfoy doesn't like the way you treat Leo. You're always yelling or screaming when he's there-"

Ginny cut Harry off again. "Because _he's_ there too!"

"It doesn't matter. Malfoy is there because Leo's there and Leo is where Malfoy goes. I know he's a tosser, but he's not all bad."

"Next you'll be telling me he's grown on you and you're best friends. What are you going to start calling him Draco next or something?" Ginny's tone was petulant.

"That's not a bad idea; it's probably would be best for Leo," Harry answered, considering the idea. It seemed weird, but it also seemed weird to forever call the father of his child by a last name. "And he has grown on me. I think that maybe his abrasive tone is habit left over from school, because when we talk, he's not much like that. Leo is the only thing he cares about. If you could hear him go on about Leo and see what I see, I think you'd give him a chance too."

"Not bloody likely."

"Please Ginny, I want you both to be part of my life; you and Leo. And until Leo's old enough to be separated, that means dealing with having Malfoy along. Just give it a chance, for me?" Harry pleaded.

Silence filled the air, thick and heavy, as Ginny thought. Then she gave a curt nod and smiled and Harry jumped up to hug her. The hug was a little overzealous considering the amount they had to drink and they lost their balance, toppling over onto the floor. Instead of getting up, they shared a frantic kiss under the table. They were horny and panting, her pupils blown wide from lust and his heart pounding in his chest.

What stopped them was the fact that Harry noticed their audience out of the corner of his eye; every one of the half dozen bar patrons was staring and the bar was unusually quiet. That was worse than Draco's ice water to the bits hex and Harry quickly pulled away, ending the kiss. He stood up hastily, brushing himself off and straightening his robes, before leaning down and holding out a hand to Ginny, to help her up. "Here, let's relocate to somewhere a bit more private."

They were soon walking through the forest between the bar and the Burrow. They stopped when they came across a small outcropping of moss covered rocks. The moment they stopped, Ginny jumped on Harry, kissing him hard, but he pushed her away and insisted that they set up a few wards before they do anything. He even transfigured a large rock into a small bed; it was a rather hard bed, but significantly softer than a moss covered rock.

Ginny was pleased with the makeshift bed, if her enthusiastic lust was anything to go by. She pushed Harry down onto the bed, snogged him until he was breathless, and initiated a little something more. Not sex, due to her parents' rules, but touching and oral.

* * *

Harry, Ron, and Ginny went to the pub every night that week after Auror training and had a good time, just the three of them. It had the added benefit of not having to see Draco much, but Harry did find himself missing Leo, which was why he decided to spend the weekend at home. And now that he was engaged and they had talked about Leo, he invited Ginny over.

Ginny could make the floo trip herself, but Harry was nervous about having her and Draco under the same roof again, so he decided to escort her over. They apparated onto the porch, Harry taking her by side-along, since she wasn't yet seventeen. He led her upstairs, arm in arm, to announce their return to Draco and Leo, who were in the drawing room. The baby was sitting on the floor in the middle of a bunch of toys, Draco in front of him, holding the new owl just out of reach. Leo was reaching out, trying to grab the bird and Draco was remembering what Harry had said about not giving their son live animals to play with.

"We're back," Harry announced.

"Awhooo," Leo said, reaching for the owl, oblivious to the new arrivals. Harry apparently was no competition for an owl.

"He's saying owl, I think," Draco said, glancing up for a second and then back to Leo. He stroked the bird with one hand, while firmly keeping it in place with the other.

"He is not. He's saying Aa-woo. Sounds like he's crying at you to me," Ginny said.

"Who asked you, Weasley?" Draco asked snidely, glaring at Ginny. After a moment of silence, broken only by Leo's babbling, he raised the owl into the air and encouraged it to fly away. It did and he used his free hands to snatch Leo up. He rose and headed towards the stairs, aiming to seclude himself in the nursery until she was gone.

"Wait, where are you going? I want you to stay and try to get on," Harry protested, calling up the stairwell and catching Draco mid-flight.

"And what do you expect us to talk about? Our Hogwarts letters? As much as I'd love to be Head Boy and lord it over your girlfriend, PaPa, I don't think I'll take Slughorn and McGonagall up on their offer to babysit," Draco replied, Leo on his hip. The baby was drooling on his robes, the little fists wrinkling the fabric. He purposefully failed to acknowledge the engagement, which in his view, shouldn't've ever happened in the first place.

"What are you talking about Malfoy? Like anyone would ever make _you_ Head Boy," Ginny replied, appearing at Harry's side and not so subtly wrapping an arm around her prize.

"Oh, did you not know? My offer of Head Boy came with an extension. It seems Headmaster Snape wished to be accommodating. It was rather obvious I was in no condition to fulfill the role last year," Draco said.

"You weren't Head Boy last year; Theo Nott was," Ginny said.

"What are you talking about? You aren't seriously considering going back to school this year, are you? What about Leo?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I just said I wasn't," Draco said with a sneer, which Leo copied, babbling angrily now in imitation. "And Theo was only offered the badge after I turned it down."

"Yeah right," Ginny said.

"But if I was, all of the professors except for that barmy Trelawney volunteered to babysit. They sent me an apology for besmirching my good name after Dumbledore's death and saying that I was welcome back. Slughorn's letter was particularly groveling."

"So you've gotten your Hogwarts letter then?" Harry asked, seizing on anything that he could make sense of.

Hermione had written about receiving her Hogwarts letter last week. The owl had apparently flown clear around the world to deliver it to her in Australia. She was of course keen to go back and eager to receive the letter. The eighth year letters had been sent out early, because special arrangements were being made to house the extra students and the school needed to know how many extra students to expect. Neither Harry nor Ron had gotten one, but they didn't expect to, since they'd join the Auror program. They'd seen McGonagall during one or another of the Ministry galas, so she knew their intentions.

"Yes, along with two apologies; one from Slughorn, the other from McGonagall, but signed by all of the other professors. They all offered to watch Leo for me while I take classes. Slughorn seems to think that there is no problem with keeping a baby at the front of a potions class while first years explode their cauldrons all over the place," Draco answered.

"No frigging way," Harry replied in disbelief.

"Watch your language, PaPa. There are sensitive ears listening." As Draco said this, he covered one of Leo's ears temporally for effect. Leo whined at that and batted his father's hand away, still holding on with his other.

"Sorry." Harry shrugged apologetically. "But you're not going back, are you? You can't go back; it's no place for a baby."

"Don't worry, I'm not going. I let Leo have the Head Boy badge to gnaw on. I think he might be teething." To demonstrate his point, Draco pushed a crooked index finger into Leo's mouth, letting the baby gum it.

"Prove it. There's no way they offered you the Head Boy badge," Ginny challenged.

With that Draco pulled out his wand, gave it a swish, and said, "Accio Hogwarts letter! Accio Head Boy badge!"

A folded set of parchment sheets and a Head Boy badge came flying down from the third floor. Draco reached out a hand to grab both and then went down a few steps, holding the items out to Harry. Harry reached out, climbing up two stairs in the process, and took them. Ginny stayed put at the bottom of the stairs and crossed her arms as she scowled.

"It's a real Head Boy badge," Harry confirmed, looking it over before opening up the folded parchment to read. The first page was a Hogwarts letter, informing Draco that he was welcome back to finish his seventh year and take his NEWTs. The second was the typical supply letter. The third was indeed from Slughorn. Harry read just enough of that third one to groan in disgust at the potion professor's blatant desire to court Draco. Slughorn had done his best to ignore Draco sixth year, but now that Draco had Harry's baby, Draco was welcome in the Slug Club.

The final parchment was from McGonagall and was as Draco had said, an apology for implicating Draco in Dumbledore's death, given that they now knew the entire thing had been planned by the late Headmaster. It included an offer to babysit and all of the other Hogwarts professors signed below McGonagall's signature. The lone dissention was Trelawney, who wrote, "I would offer to babysit Leo—I'm sure he is a charming baby—but I sense great danger and misfortune if I were to do so. I therefore regretfully decline to participate in the babysitting pool the Headmistress has proposed."

"I was sent a Head Boy badge last year too, but I left that behind at the Manor; it wasn't likely I would need it," Draco said airily, smirking at the fact that he'd one-upped Ginny. He knew Ginny hadn't been offered the Head Girl position or even the role of Prefect. She would be Quidditch captain only, and she didn't know that for certain, since her own letter hadn't arrived.

Harry turned back to the first page and read the bit at the bottom stating that Draco's Head Boy honor would be extended to him again this year, if he chose to return. It also said that the role would be held for him indefinitely, whenever he did decide to come back. It sounded like Draco would be offered the badge again next year, if he didn't accept this year.

"This is Snape's doing. It has to be; there's no other reason for _Malfoy_ to be made Head Boy. Voldemort probably put Snape up to it; Malfoy was his prized Death Eater," Ginny said, grabbing the badge from Harry.

Draco didn't deny the accusation, instead brushing it off with a shrug. "My father said he is going to bring litigation against Trelawney for what she said about Leo. Can you believe she's predicting harm to a baby?"

Harry shrugged. "She always predicted my death when Ron and I took her class." Apparently the dire predictions had now been transferred to his son.

"Well yes, _you_ would meet an unfortunate end, but not _Leo_. Such things cannot possibly happen to _my baby_. Just you keep your doomsday prophecies to yourself. My father wrote Trelawney quite the complaint about that," Draco said.

Harry rolled his eyes at the mention of Lucius, as if the wizard still had some pull somewhere. It wasn't like when they were younger, when Lucius held a position on the Hogwarts board of governors. "Right," he said, not having anything else to say.

"You can keep that if you want; I've no plans to return to the castle this year." And with that, Draco disappeared with Leo up the stairs.

Harry and Ginny went back into the drawing room. Harry cleaned up the blanket and pile of toys that had been left on the floor. The pair tried to forget about the conversation with Draco and discuss other things. They spent a long while discussing Quidditch, which was one of the few things they had in common.

* * *

Author's Note: I kept wanting to add more into this chapter and let Draco and Ginny keep taking shots at each other. But it was getting long, so I decided to save some for next chapter.

Please Review!


	10. Chapter 10

It wasn't until several hours later that Harry left Ginny alone for more than a minute. He'd gotten an owl from Dromeda and had taken off to find a quill to write back in his room on the top floor, leaving her in the drawing room on the second floor.

Draco was keeping an eye out for just such an occurrence and quickly popped downstairs, leaving Leo behind asleep in the crib. He took a seat in the armchair across from Ginny and said, "Just because he asked you to marry him, don't be fooled; he's still sleeping with me."

"No he's not, Malfoy. He told me the truth," Ginny replied angrily, but trying to keep her voice down, knowing that Leo was in the other room and that Harry would be mad.

"He is so. But, if you are too blind to see it, go ahead and keep telling yourself that you are the only one."

"And how was it that you got that blasted fertility spell to work, when we all know it shouldn't've?"

"We _did_ have a secret sexual relationship, you bint. I have been trying to tell you that."

"No you didn't. And even if you did, why would you want to have Harry's kid? His mother was muggleborn, which makes him a halfblood. You've just contaminated your bloodline," Ginny retorted.

"I look at it this way: it was my destiny to have Leo," Draco revealed, telling the truth for once. And then he jumped up and left, disappearing as quickly as he'd come.

Ginny was going to tell Harry what Draco said just as soon as Harry came back down, but she didn't get the chance. Harry came running down the stairs looking alarmed and headed straight to the second floor loo.

"Harry!" Ginny called, running after him.

The door to the loo was open when they got there, the toilet mid-flush, and Draco was on his knees in front of it. He hawked a spit into the bowl, before looking up. "I've been feeling ill all morning, Harry. Could you get me some water?" He offered no explanation for what he was doing on the second floor, when Harry had last seen him going up to the third, and none was asked for.

Harry conjured a glass, which he filled with water and handed over.

Draco drank the water, before asking. "Will you keep an eye on Leo for me?"

"Yeah, sure. What's wrong? Do you need to see a healer?" Harry asked concerned.

"I threw up," Draco said shrugging. "I think I just want to lie down for now."

"Of course," Harry said, reaching out a hand to help Draco up.

Harry led Draco back up the stairs to his bedroom, bumping Ginny out of the way in the process. After Draco's earlier comment, that only upset her more, so she stalked her way to the landing, waiting for Harry.

Harry came down a minute later and asked Ginny, "Why didn't you help him when he called?" He wasn't mad that she'd ignored Draco's calls for help, because he knew Draco was an arse to her, but he didn't think it was right either.

"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked.

"He called for help. I heard him from my room while I was digging through my trunk. If I could hear him from all the way up there, then surely you must've heard him."

"No, I didn't. But it doesn't matter, because he wasn't even sick. He's just making it up to get attention."

"Look, I know you don't like him, but the least you could've done was see what was wrong and gotten him the water."

"He wasn't sick! He was in here a minute ago making up shite again!"

"How could he 've, if he was in the loo throwing up?"  
"That's what I'm saying: he wasn't," Ginny persisted.

"Could you two keep it down; I'm trying to rest," Draco's weak voice interrupted from the stairway. He was bending over the railing on the landing above, looking ill. Then he made a gulping sound and dashed off towards the loo again, the one on the third floor this time. He shut and locked the door behind him.

Harry ran up the stairs in an effort to get to Draco and Ginny followed after.

"Draco! Are you alright?" Harry called through the door, hearing the sounds of retching behind it.

"He's just faking, Harry!" Ginny insisted.

"Look, you'd better go. I need to take care of this and watch Leo," Harry said dismissing Ginny with the wave of a hand, not even turning to look at her as he concentrated on the door.

"But Harry-"

Harry cut Ginny off, saying only, "Just go. I'll fire-call you later."

Ginny was pissed that she hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise, so she turned and left, going home.

Leo started crying then and Draco was still holed up in the loo, so Harry turned to get the baby. Harry sat and rocked Leo, the new curtains in the nursery catching his eye. They seemed to shift to a different scene with every time of the day. At night they were dark blue and filled with stars. After dinner they were covered in bubbles and bath tiles. Now they showed a bottle, a baby spoon, and a bowl of a mashed green substance. Apparently Leo was hungry and the curtains knew it. Nothing Harry did calmed Leo for long, so he was relieved when Draco finally emerged, smelling of toothpaste.

Draco took Harry's place with the child in the rocking chair. "Shoo now," Draco said, positioning Leo on the u-shaped pillow.

Harry got the hint and left, although he kept an eye on the two all day, forgetting about Ginny and the promise he'd made to fire-call her.

* * *

Ginny invited herself over Sunday to tell Harry off. She had a temper and let him have it for not calling her and for falling for Draco's bullshite. He realized then that he'd forgotten to call and since he was cowed over that, he didn't press the point that Draco really was sick. She, however, had less success in telling Draco off.

As soon as Ginny started on him, Draco burped and put a hand to his mouth. "Excuse me," he mumbled into his fingers.

"Don't pull that again. I know you're not really sick. I know you're faking," Ginny accused.

Draco responded to that by dropping to his knees and puking over Ginny's shoes, having swallowed a puking pastille right before she and Harry entered the nursery. This time there was no way he was lying about the vomit, because it was right there for all to see.

"Come on," Harry said, pulling Draco up by the shoulders and practically dragging him to the loo as he continued to heave.

The next round of vomit was delivered straight into the toilet. Harry stood back, waiting to see if there was anything more he could do. Draco eventually asked for a glass of water. Then he sent Harry off to clean up the mess and check on Leo, who had been left alone in the playpen. As soon as he was in the clear, he ate the antidote half of the sweet and strode downstairs to join Ginny in the drawing room. It was just the two of them, because Harry was still in the nursery with Leo.

"It's morning sickness," Draco lied, sitting down in his favorite armchair.

"What is?" Ginny asked in reply.

"Why I've been throwing up. I'm pregnant again; I told you we've still been having sex. I reckon it was that first night I came here that's done it this time. He said he won't break it off with you, because he's scared of what the papers will print when they find out he's gay. Imagine that; the great Harry Potter is afraid of the press."

With that, Ginny started thinking twice about her previous assumption. Now that she'd had to spell actual vomit off of her shoes—strictly speaking she wasn't supposed to be doing magic, but with two fully-fledged wizards in the house, the Ministry would never know—she was no longer entirely convinced that Draco was faking. And if he wasn't faking that, then she couldn't be sure if he was lying about having sex with Harry too. It had been a year now since she'd had sex with Harry and it was hard for her to believe that Harry would just wait for her all that time.

"Whatever," Ginny huffed, and decided to leave. Either Harry was cheating on her or he was a moron for falling for Draco's crap; she was so mad that she wasn't going to stick around to find out which.

As Ginny rose up and reached for the pot of floo powder on the mantel, Draco said, "This next baby will have to be the Malfoy heir, or course, because Leo is already the sole Potter heir. It's a good job Harry has his inheritance, or we wouldn't be able to have two children; Malfoys don't produce more than one child for each inheritance."

That stopped Ginny in her tracks. She turned around quickly, her hair fanning out with the movement, and said, "Leo won't be Harry's only heir for long. We're getting married, remember?"

"Doesn't matter. Harry already signed the writ of paternity which clearly states that Leo Draco Malfoy is his one and only heir, to receive no less than three quarters of the contents of his vaults at the time of signing and all property, including this house. Any wives or additional children may not dilute his inheritance down to nothing; knowing you Weasleys, you would have ten children and then there would be nothing left for Leo, so I had my lawyer write that part in. This house cannot be sold or transferred to anyone other than Leo and Leo's share of the vaults cannot be spent, since they are going into a trust fund specifically for him. Harry is welcome to leave the remaining quarter of his vaults to whoever he wants, but as of right now, Leo is the sole heir, so those moneys would also go to him."

"So when I marry him, your brat still gets more, even if I have his kid?" Ginny asked incredulously.

"Yes. It's only fair, don't you think? Since he refuses to marry me and expects to string me along on the side," Draco replied.

"Harry!" Ginny cried, angrily.

Harry came rushing down the stairs a few moments later. "Shush; Leo just went down for his nap," he admonished as he entered the drawing room. He'd had to sing for half an hour to get the baby down, since he didn't believe Draco that there was no trick to it. He assumed that it wasn't working because he didn't know the words to the German song Draco sang, so he'd tried a dozen English songs. Finally, as always happens, Leo had been so exhausted he'd just laid down and closed his eyes. That was a lot of work, so why was it that Ginny insisted on yelling when there was a baby in the house?

"Never mind that. Draco just told me that you signed paperwork making Leo your sole heir," Ginny accused.

From the expression on Ginny's face, Harry could tell she was mad about this and that he was likely walking into a trap of some kind. Not wanting to wake the baby, he cast a silencing bubble around them, so that no matter how loud she got, Leo wouldn't hear. But even then he knew Draco would still complain about her yelling the moment she left, so he said, "If we are going to talk about this, you need to calm down and not yell. I cast a silencing charm, but we need to get used to not yelling in this house."

"_I_ need to calm down?" Ginny whispered incredulously. Well it was a whisper for her, but it still came out with plenty of volume.

"Er, yes? Now what is the problem?"

"Malfoy here just informed me that the writ of paternity you signed named Leo your sole heir. Is that true?"

"Yeah, well I wanted him to be my heir. What's the harm in that? He's my son."

"Not just your heir, Harry, your _sole _heir, meaning your only heir. When we marry and have children, we won't get as much as Leo. We can't even use Leo's share of the inheritance while you're alive!"

"Is that true, Malfoy? Is that what those papers said?" Harry asked, turning to Draco.

Draco shrugged and said, "Yes, to a point. Only seventy-five percent of your current wealth and this property, since I was only aware of this one, are being held in trust for Leo. You are free to use the remaining twenty-five percent and any money you earn in your lifetime however you want."

"I get twenty-five percent and anything I make on my own?" Harry asked and Draco nodded. Harry shrugged. "I can live with that. I have plenty of money in my vaults and I'm already working. I wasn't planning on dipping into the inheritance from my parents anyway. I want to work for a living."

"Seriously? You find out that he's tricked you out of your house and your inheritance and you don't care? Any child we have will be like second-rate with only a fraction of the inheritance Leo gets," Ginny replied.

"No, that's only of the money that Sirius and my parents left me. The money I make I will be free to decide how to split. Our child could end up with far more than what has been promised to Leo," Harry reasoned. After living off of his inheritance for the last seven years, it was greatly depleted anyway. It was still a lot of money for him, but he figured Draco would think it was barely anything, which was how he explained it away to himself.

"I don't care. It's the principle of the thing. Why don't you crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out of, Malfoy?" Ginny asked, anger still evident in her tone.

"Fine, I will. Tomorrow I'll go down to the Ministry and arrange a portkey for me and Leo. We will go back to that horrible little cottage big enough for two that my father calls a safe house. You and Harry will never have to see us again, is that what you want?" Draco asked, bluffing.

"No, it's not!" Harry exclaimed, jumping in. He was just getting to know his son; it was too soon to loose Leo. "I want you to stay."

"Hear that Weasley?" Draco asked, a smug smirk on his face. He was tempted to ask Harry to make her leave, but he held out, because he wanted Harry to make the decision to kick Ginny out.

Ginny practically growled in frustration. "Are you seriously choosing him over me?" she asked, glaring at Harry.

"No, I want you both to get along," Harry replied.

"Fine, I'm leaving," Ginny announced, making the decision Harry didn't want to. And with that, she flooed back to the Burrow.

Harry sighed in disappointment over Ginny, but he was also concerned about Draco. Despite the fact that Draco had tricked him into signing away Leo a larger chunk of the pie, he wasn't particularly angry about it. It was just Draco making sure Leo was taken care of.

"Is there a reason Leo needs my inheritance that badly?" Harry asked and waited for a response. When he didn't get one, he continued, "He has his inheritance from you, doesn't he?"

"Not exactly," Draco finally answered evasively. Harry raised his eyebrow, urging Draco to continue. "My father's still in charge of the Malfoy inheritance. He refuses to name an heir after me until I get my life sorted. Leo won't be left with nothing, but he may not be in line for the title of Lord Malfoy and everything that comes with it. My father seems to think that in a few years, I'll settle down and marry a nice pureblood who will give additional heirs to choose from. And he's concerned that this first heir might be too Gryffindorish and other such nonsense."

"Your father has no right to do that! Leo is your firstborn son!"

"Out of wedlock. I'm afraid that as long as he's alive, my father has every right. But, should he die before me, then I will be able to undo whatever havoc he wrecks. Unfortunately, that could take years and years. Leo might be a grown man ready to start a family of his own before I can fix it."

Harry could tell from the sad way Draco was speaking of it, that this issue really bothered him. For someone like Draco, who knew his place in the great succession of life since the day he was born, the idea that his son might not have a place was mindboggling. His overzealousness in insuring Leo's place with Harry as the Potter heir was just his way of coping with the uncertainty his father had heaped on him by refusing to name Leo as the Malfoy heir. It must cause Draco a great deal of stress and that wasn't the only reason that had Harry worried about him.

"This is the second day in a row you've been sick. Don't you think it's time to go get checked out?" Harry asked.

"No, I don't feel up to waiting in that mess; I'm not ill enough to warrant it. Do you have any idea how packed St. Mungo's was? The Prophet writes about the shortage of beds in every other addition. Leo and I would've been turned out on our arses if he didn't have the taint of Savior on him."

"But if you're really ill, Malfoy, then you need to go."

"I think it's just your house elf's cooking."

Harry did have to concede that Kreacher was not the most competent of elves. After he'd returned from vanishing suddenly during the war, the elf was less than pleased with him. Kreacher showed his displeasure in his cooking, although the elf never seem mad at Draco, always rushing to serve the noble Master Malfoy. "What about your house elf? Mipsy? I never see her around. She could cook."

"Dipsy, and no, she's not a cooking elf. She's a night elf and sleeps during the day."

"Well then I'll just cook myself," Harry offered.

* * *

Author's Note: That blew up nicely. Do you think we can call the Draco and Ginny getting along experiment over? Once Draco's manage to claim the house for himself and keep her away, it might just be time for him to make a move of his own on Harry. What do you think he should try?

Please Review!


	11. Chapter 11

First thing Monday morning during Auror training, Harry was called into Head Auror Robards' office. There was a witch already in the room wearing the indigo colored robes of an Unspeakable. Her auburn hair was swept up in a messy bun, with a pair of spectacles perched on top. Her appearance bore striking similarities to how Hermione looked after spending the night with her nose in a book.

"Ah Harry, this is Unspeakable Dunaway. She has been charged with looking into how Draco Malfoy was able to get around the relationship requirement of the fertility spell," Robards said.

Dunaway offered her hand, which Harry shook, saying, "It's nice to meet you."

The Unspeakable didn't return Harry's greeting, other than to offer a curt nod. Instead she addressed Robards' comment, saying, "Malfoy did not get around the relationship requirement. There is no mystery here; the spell has worked perfectly."

"Honestly, we were not romantically involved in any way," Harry assured the witch. "But, um, this healer told me that other strong emotions can, er, sort of take the place of love."

"Yes, the spell measures the sum total of all emotions in a relationship throughout the lifetime of a relationship," Dunaway replied. "That is the exact mechanism of determining whether the spell works or fails, but most authors of fertility books find that explanation too complicated for the lay-wizard to understand, hence the simplification. The spell can fail when a relationship is destined to end in the near future, despite strong passionate love at the moment the spell is cast. And it can work for couples with mildly positive relationships, if the relationship lasts a lifetime. According to the file I was given, Auror Potter and the wizard in question have known each other since starting school. I suspect that your mutual obsessions will keep the two of you in each other's lives until your eventual deaths. You will in all likelihood be friends for the majority of that time. Therefore the integral of your emotions over time surpasses the threshold of emotions required by the spell. Everything is in order here and nothing needs investigating."

"Then why has it taken so long for you to get back to me?" Robards asked sternly.

"Because we Unspeakables have other things to do than cater to you. There were more important cases in front of this one," Dunaway answered.

"This is Harry Potter we're talking about here; he's the Savior—" Robards started, but Harry cut him off.

"Of the Wizarding World, yes, we know." Harry waved his hand dismissively. "What I want to know is how our _future_ friendship can affect a spell performed over a year ago?"

"Time is nothing more and nothing less than the fourth direction in the space-time continuum. Like all of the other dimensions, it is possible to move both forward and backwards through it. That is the principle behind the Time Turner. Some spells work given information from the present point in time, some from the past, some from the future, and this one, from the integration of all three," Dunaway replied.

Harry's head spun when he tried to think about it. This was obviously such complex magical theory that he had trouble understanding it. But if the expert on the subject didn't think there was a mystery, then that was good enough for him. He left the room that day knowing two new things. First of all, he _never_ wanted to be an Unspeakable. And second, no one else could have done what Draco did. The odds of someone else who he was not in a sexual relationship with being able to meet the emotional threshold was slim. The only people he needed to worry about were those he would have lifetime friendships with, which basically amounted to Ron and Hermione. And he knew he didn't need to worry about his best friends, so there was nothing to worry about. Other than Draco, that was.

Harry rejoined the other Auror trainees and let the physical exercises drive the headache inducing memory of Dunaway's words from his mind. Later, during their afternoon break, he found out from Ron about the misconceptions Ginny left with the previous day. He didn't really understand the leap Ginny had made from Draco throwing up to Draco being pregnant and having sex with him, and figured it was just Ginny's overactive imagination. But the thought that Draco might be pregnant did trigger a different thought in Harry's mind: Draco could use the fertility spell again to get pregnant by Harry anytime Draco wanted, without permission.

That night Harry stumbled out of the floo determined to talk to Draco. He was tipsy from a night of drinking at the pub with Ron and Ginny and the alcohol gave him courage. Leo was already asleep, a string of Zs displayed on the starry curtains, so it was a perfect time for a chat.

Harry found Draco reading in bed and said, "We need to talk."

Draco motioned Harry into the room and indicated a chair in the corner, "By all means. What did you want to discuss? I know a charming little clinic that promises to do wonders with alcohol addiction."

Harry took the seat. "No, not about that. About Leo. Or, er, about the spell you used to make him."

"What about it?" Draco placed a bookmark to save his place and set the book down at his side.

"Are you going to do it again?"

"Do what again?" Draco asked confused.

"Make a baby. You know, do the fertility spell with one of my hairs."

"What are you on about now, Potter?"

"If it worked once, it might work again. We might have _two_ babies."

"Do you want that or something? What, Weasley cannot have children, so you turn to me? I'll have you know that you cannot use me like that. I won't bend to your every drunken whim."

"No, I'm not asking you to! I thought you might do it again without my permission. You did it once. What's to stop you from doing it again?" Harry asked.

"A, I already have Leo. B, I already have all of the work and hassle of being a single father and a pariah to the wizarding world. C, I don't need that doubled. D, next time I have a child I'd like to have one with someone who wants me around. E, I only made Leo because I had to. And F, you took care of the Dark Lord, so there is no reason I will ever find myself in the same situation again."

"Good."

"Now if you'd please leave and not come back until you are sober and no longer talking nonsense," Draco said, making a shooing motion towards the door, indicating that Harry should get out.

Harry rose, turned halfway towards the door, before changing his mind. He jerked his head back in a not entirely sober manner, and sat back down; that last beer was still absorbing into his system. "Wait a minute. You didn't share. We're supposed to talk. You always make me tell you how I'm feeling when you want to talk. I just told you what was bothering me. What do you think of it?"

"While I think my son is absolutely perfect in every way, I think his PaPa has a drinking problem that I do _not _like," Draco replied tersely.

"Come now, I didn't have all that much to drink; only a few butterbeers." It had been exactly six beers, but that was over the course of the last three hours and it was a very weak drink. It loosened his tongue and lowered his inhibitions, but he wasn't out of control or falling down. There were moments that were more lucid, but then the slight buzz would return and his tongue slipped again.

"I don't want you holding Leo when you're like this. You might drop him." Truthfully it wasn't so much the alcohol that Draco had a problem with, as it was that he knew it was Ginny Weasley who Harry was drinking with. He'd already warned Harry once and so far Harry had shown no move towards their son while intoxicated. He thought he could trust Harry's judgment enough not to do so; Leo was safe, which was what mattered most. But, the Weasley bint was a lush and if he could get Harry to sober up, he knew Harry would find her far less tolerable. It was never fun to be the sober one looking in and he hoped he could brow beat Harry into seeing Ginny like that.

"Alright, I won't touch Leo when I drink, if you tell me." Now Harry knew Draco was avoiding the question and he wanted to know why. "How do _you_ feel?" He was just tipsy enough that as he spoke, he found himself fixating on Draco's lips. It was an odd thing to focus on and he didn't know why he was doing it. Maybe the sneer that Leo's mouth liked to copy had become endearing. Or maybe it was that he was feeling a bit randy, after leaving Ginny without fooling around tonight, because he'd wanted to have this talk with Draco.

"You know my son is perfect, right? He's very smart and advanced for his age and he has the biggest, most beautiful eyes I've ever seen." As Draco said this, he looked into Harry's matching green eyes.

"Yes, I know. He even knew that the new owl's name is Awhoo, not Kevin. You've been calling that owl Kevin all week." Harry was rambling, due to the alcohol, and hadn't understood Draco's implications.

Just that morning the owl had chosen Leo to drop his letter off with, even though it was for Draco. Draco had been trying to reach the owl as it flew around the ceiling, calling, "Kevin! Kevin, get down here." Leo had called out, "Awwhoooo," a couple of times and opened and closed his hands in command to come. The bird had obeyed the baby. Harry decided after that that they should change the bird's name. Draco, having just gotten ahold of the letter from his father, had been too busy reading to care and hadn't opposed the decision, even though it was technically Draco's bird.

"Whatever PaPa, but if we're ever in public, it's going to be you calling out that ridiculous name."

"Alright," Harry replied. He paused a minute, trying to remember what they were talking about, before he recalled his earlier train of thought. "You're not mad though, are you?"

"That you changed Kevin's name, even though he's my owl? No. Truthfully I was thinking Kevin sounds a bit muggle. Can't have muggle sounding owls, can we? And with you being _The Savior_, you have every right to go around renaming other people's owls."

"No, not about the owl. About Leo; are you mad Voldemort forced you? That you're stuck with my son?"

"_I am not stuck with your son, you imbecile_! That is _my_ son you're talking about!" Draco was angry now and his smirk turned into a scowl. He was back to thinking Harry was an annoyingly stupid drunk.

That response sounded positive; if Draco was claiming Leo so fiercely, he wasn't likely resentful of the situation and Harry couldn't see Draco taking anything out on the baby. Draco genuinely seemed to love Leo. Thus Harry smiled and reached a hand out to take Draco's. "I'm glad," he said.

Draco blinked, taken aback. It flickered through his mind that Harry was drunker than he thought, but then he decided that the advance wasn't unwelcomed. Maybe Ginny wasn't the only one who could take advantage of a drunken Harry. He smirked and said, "You really can't hold your liquor, can you?"

Harry shrugged and threaded his fingers in between Draco's. The wizard's skin was soft and hot and the touch was very pleasant.

"I didn't know you were such a touchy-feely drunk," Draco said, but didn't pull away, instead leaning into Harry. The next bit was whispered into Harry's ear. "You know, Harry, you're growing on me. You remind me of my son and we both know how gorgeous he is."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, leaning into the touch. They were almost embracing and it felt nice and tingly. He didn't make the connection from Leo's looks to his own that Draco had implied. Due to his self-deprecating nature, he probably wouldn't have made the connection if he were sober. In his mind, Leo was far better looking than himself, despite the similarities. He figured Draco's genes had somehow made the features more attractive on Leo than they looked on him. He had no chance of making the connection in his present state.

"Now off to bed with you, before you pass out in my room. I swear to Salazar I'll take your photo and send it to the Daily Prophet if that happens," Draco said, pulling back. He wasn't yet comfortable enough around Harry to make his move. Add to that the fact that Harry was clearly tipsy, while he was stone cold sober, and it didn't feel right.

A thought of the scandal that that would create flashed through Harry's mind and he pulled away. He left, earlier fears assuaged, but with a new worry about Skeeter fresh in his mind.

* * *

Author's Note: One reviewer raised the question of how Draco feels. I tried to answer that a bit with this chapter, but he doesn't seem entirely ready to share. He obviously came back feeling differently about Harry than he did when they were at school, thanks to Leo. But right now I think it's more on the side of possessiveness towards Harry and not wanting Ginny to have him, than actual love. I can't see him being okay with a Weasley having what he thinks belongs to him and his son, even if it is the Savior of the Wizarding World. What do you think?

Please Review!


	12. Chapter 12

It took Harry all week to convince Ginny that Draco wasn't pregnant, they weren't having sex, and to spend time with him again. With all of the drama between Draco and Ginny, Harry subconsciously started separating them. He spent time with Ginny at the pub and over at the Burrow, keeping her away from Grimmauld Place and Draco. He didn't even realize he was doing it. And he had other things to worry about, like Auror training and spending his weekends with Teddy and Leo, so he didn't have time to notice that he was slowly spending less and less time with Ginny, only seeing her on weekday evenings after training and Friday and Saturday nights.

It was a week later when Harry came home to find Draco in the drawing room, hysterically upset and crying. He'd gone out to the pub again with Ron, Ginny, and some of the other trainees from work and was already tipsy. "What's wrong?" he asked, instinctively stepping forward to comfort Draco, but his arms falling short in trepidation. They weren't familiar enough for that, were they?

"It's my father," Draco answered, his voice breaking, before another bout of sobs wracked his chest.

With alcohol on his brain, Harry turned to the drink now. He pulled a special bottle of mead down from a high shelf; the bottle was old and had probably belonged to Sirius, having been there since he could remember. He made Draco drink a shot with him, slightly too far gone to realize what a horrible idea that was. He tossed his own back easily, but Draco sputtered on his at first and then had to hold his breath to swallow it down, making a repulsed face. Draco wasn't used to shots and actually followed it down with a bit of water to clear his palette of the taste, but the drink did seem to calm him down.

Once Draco's breathing was somewhat under control, Harry requested, "Now tell me what's happened with your dad."

After Harry's drunken speech in Draco's bedroom, Draco thought it might be okay to have a drink with Harry and see where things led. He wasn't thinking along the lines of getting Harry in bed, because he thought too highly of himself to be the other man. He was going to have Harry for himself and for Leo without Ginny and he wouldn't consent to that sort of thing until there was a commitment and a ring on his finger. No, what he thought might happen was a bit more drunken conversation, because Harry's tongue loosened and Harry opened up when drunk. And Harry might just admit that he fancied Draco; possibly even kiss him.

Draco wasn't thinking about that now though, being too worked up about his father. If truth be told Lucius had done this sort of thing before, leaving him and his mother to wonder what had happened. Sometimes it was Aurors picking Lucius up for questioning, but there had also been angry business partners and the like who had decided to go after Lucius for money or revenge. Draco didn't know for certain which it was this time and with the post-war anti-Death Eater climate, he feared the worst.

"My mother fire-called. She was so worried. She said that my father went out hours ago and never came back. She sent our house elves after him. He'd been seen at the corner shop, but someone from the local Ministry was bothering him. They asked him to go in for questioning and then when he refused, hauled him in by force." At least that was what the elf said; elves were not the most reliable of witnesses and the Malfoy elf had had it secondhand from the shop owner's elf.

Draco stopped there to take another swig of the alcohol, which he gagged on before finally swallowing. Harry joined him, without the gagging. A few minutes later, Harry said, "Well if it's the Austrian Ministry, I can ask Kingsley to have someone talk to them for me. I'm sure they're already in contact; the Aurors probably just want more information."

Draco had exchanged at least a dozen owls with the British Aurors, listing Death Eaters and where they might be. Harry thought Draco was contributing enough that way and wasn't particularly keen on the idea of Draco and Leo being dragged into the Ministry. But, there were frequent occasions when some of the other Aurors suggested it and the possibility of getting Draco to bring in his old man. Lucius would be as good as gold if he came in and talked.

"But that's just it!" Draco wailed piteously. "Mother contacted the Austrian Ministry! They don't have him. They have no reports of his arrest and they issued no orders for him to be questioned. They don't cooperate with the British Ministry; that's why my father picked Austria in the first place. He's been kidnapped, don't you see?"

"Righ'," Harry slurred, passing over the border from tipsy to drunk. "I'm going to tell you what we're going to do. I'm going to go down to the Ministry and get whoever is on the night shift to go over there right now."

"No, you can't go." Draco's arm shot out to grab Harry's wrist. He pulled the appendage closer and locked onto it with both hands. "You're too drunk to go anywhere in your state. It's not safe to floo or apparate while drunk. Don't you know that?" Maybe Harry could get away with it while tipsy, but Harry was fully intoxicated and due to fall down any moment now. Draco wanted Harry to jump right in and solve the problem, but not at all costs. He didn't want Leo to lose a parent due to foolish drunk flooing.

Harry blinked, looking at Draco. It didn't occur to him that this was oddly selfless behavior for Draco and that if Lucius was in serious trouble and Draco as upset as he seemed, it really shouldn't matter how drunk Harry was. He did, however, concede that Draco was right and that he really was too drunk to go anywhere. "Alright. I'll fire-call the Aurors while you make us the next round of drinks."

Draco agreed to that. He took the remainder of the mead to the kitchen, saying he was going to find some sort of mixer, so they wouldn't have to keep drinking it straight. He thought he'd vomit if he had to drink any more of it straight. He'd have to feed Leo from a bottle tonight and throw away his breast milk after this, but at least he had a bit of extra breast milk stored. Leo wouldn't go hungry.

Hating the burning taste, Draco didn't know how Harry enjoyed drinking. His father drank too, but never shared the hard stuff. He'd been offered wine and even champagne at the dinner table, but only half a glass, and never beer or hard liquor. But even the wine had dried up when he got pregnant, since it wasn't good for babies. Last time he'd asked, his father had said he shouldn't have gotten himself knocked up if he wanted a bit of wine and to go take care of the baby; Lucius was less enthusiastic about Leo's existence than Draco would've liked, but at least his mother adored the child.

Harry nodded a moment too late and then went to the fireplace. Being an Auror trainee, he knew the easiest and fastest means of getting patched straight through to the Aurors on night duty. He wasted no time in doing so and relaying what Draco had told him about Lucius. They informed him that they had nothing to do with it and hadn't heard anything about it, but to rest assured, because they would get to the bottom of it by morning.

Once the fire-call was complete, Harry ventured down to the kitchen, finding it easier to walk when he held onto the wall to maintain his balance. Draco was sitting at the old kitchen table, stirring two tall glasses of something.

"It's milk, honey, and mead; I didn't know what else to use," Draco explained, handing Harry a glass. He didn't know how to mix drinks, so he had to make do and he thought the milk and honey might calm his roiling stomach.

Harry took a sip and smiled at the deliciously sweet taste. It made his taste buds burst with flavor, which didn't typically happen when he was already this drunk. He smiled wider and looked over the rim of his glass to see Draco drinking the other glass. While they finished their drinks, Harry relayed the news that the sober Aurors were on the case.

Time and reality began to blur and skip after that. Inhibitions dangerously lowered, Draco kissed Harry first; a quick peck on the lips just to see how Harry would react. He only wanted to verify that Harry was as attracted to him as he thought Harry was. He didn't know that the kiss would turn into drunken snogging and get out of hand. There was the feel of a hot body pressed against his and of the wood table under his backside. He only moved to halt what was happening when he felt the strange sensation of a cloth covered erection pressing into his own. "What are ya doin'?" Draco slurred, his tongue unnaturally heavy.

Harry remembered feeling horny, the feel of lips against his, and the sight of his fingers sifting through blond hair. "Shush, relax. This is going to feel good," Harry said, silencing Draco with a kiss. This was new territory for him as well and he probably would have stopped if he wasn't so pissed.

Draco too would've stopped it, if he'd recalled that Harry was engaged to Ginny. But he had an even lower alcohol tolerance than Harry, so most coherent thoughts had left his brain. He even forgot about Leo sleeping in the room upstairs and the drama with his father had completely slipped his mind. He thought only of his desire, that he finally had Harry's attention, and that Harry wanted him too.

It did feel good. Harry started a rhythm, rocking their still clothed bodies back and forth, which had Draco seeing stars and made his head go blank. From then on it was only about the feel of exquisite pleasure. Breathing hitched and hearts raced and they felt jolts of pleasure shoot up their spines. It was as if there had always been this urge inside that was now filled with ecstasy. The air was filled with breathy moans and the sound of cloth rubbing in rhythm against cloth.

Harry had no memories of making it to his bed that night. He woke up slowly, taking in the feel of the mattress underneath him. He wondered why his head was throbbing and if those were Ginny's arms wrapped around him. It wasn't until he opened his eyes that he realized he was not in his room or lying on his bed. This was Hermione's old room, now Draco's. He was lying in Draco's bed with Draco's arms around him, their bodies pressed against one another under the new comforter Draco had purchased. And if it wasn't obvious enough, his knickers were filled with dried cum. At least they were both still completely clothed.

It took a long moment for Harry to get his fuzzy brain to process his surroundings and figure out what had happened. When it finally clicked, he jumped out of bed, forcing Draco's limbs away from him, exclaiming in shocked horror, "What the fuck, Malfoy!?"

"Ssh, don't wake the baby," Draco mumbled, pulling the covers Harry had dislodged back to cover his body. His head already hurt, even in his sleep.

"Malfoy! Wake up!" Harry hissed, voice lowered in accordance with Draco's commandment.

"Hmmm?" Draco asked, one eye winking open, before closing again.

"I said _wake up_!" This time Harry punctuated his request with a punch to Draco's arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" Draco was awake now, sitting up and rubbing his sore arm, before cradling his aching head in his hands. He had _never_ had anywhere near that amount of alcohol before. His misery pushed all thoughts of his father, the original instigator of the drinking, temporally out of his mind.

"What did we do last night?" Harry asked.

"We humped. What does it look like we did?" Draco's cheeks flushed at the memory. Despite wanting Harry for himself, he couldn't believe he'd actually done something like that. He'd never done that before with anyone.

"How? Why?"

Draco felt like he should've been the one asking the questions. It was after all Harry who had started it. Well Draco had kissed first, but the rest had all been initiated by Harry. Then Draco's stomach rolled and he was running to the toilette to empty his stomach contents. He felt horrible, but his cheeks flamed at the memory of last night. This turn of events meant that Harry was attracted to him too. He had a chance to actually snag Harry for himself. Now it wasn't just about getting rid of that annoying Weasley girl and making room in Harry's life for Leo, but making room for himself on Harry's arm.

Following Draco to the loo, Harry continued the argument, "I'm engaged to Ginny!" Harry's voice was a hiss, as if that fact excluded the reality of what had happened last night. Normally he would be concerned for someone who seemed so clearly ill, but he wasn't in the mood this morning. He was incredibly angry, at himself and at Draco, for what they had done together. Unconsciously, he decided to take it out on Draco.

When the heaving stopped, Draco wiped his mouth on his arm and looked up at Harry incredulously. "You are? I thought you two broke up weeks ago." He couldn't believe he felt this awful and Harry was doing this. And he _had_ hoped that Ginny no longer coming around was a sign of a breakup looming.

"No, we never broke up. How could this happen? How could I have, you know, with you? You're a bloke."

"Very well spotted," Draco drawled, moving to rummage through the bathroom cabinet for something to make him feel better and earning a scowl from Harry. There was nothing but cleaning supplies, so he sat back on his bum against the wall and called Kreacher, who he ordered to fetch a vial of hangover potion. Harry happened to have some in the house, so the elf did as told, and Draco chugged the liquid down. He felt better a minute later, his head suddenly clearing and his stomach calming down. That was when he noticed Harry was still standing in the doorway waiting for an explanation, the unbelievable prick that he was.

Draco stood up, closed the distance between them, and glared down at Harry. "It's all very simple, Harry. You are gay. You like cock. I really don't know how you could have gone this long and not figured it out. Honestly, it's been obvious for years," Draco said harshly.

It wasn't in fact all that obvious, but Draco thought he'd seen Harry checking his arse out a few too many times sixth year. If only he hadn't been so busy with that blasted cabinet and his orders, he might've had time to use Harry's obsession to his advantage and play a hilarious prank or three. Back then he didn't have Leo and never would've considered a relationship with the Boy Who Lived, because his father would've killed him for it. But now he did have Leo, so he had his excuse for doing what he was doing. Plus, it would help his family's reputation after coming out of the war on the loosing side.

Harry didn't try denying that he liked cock; he'd considered the possibility before when he'd found himself checking out a male muggle's arse while on the run during the war. He did lie to himself and try to pretend that he hadn't liked what he'd done with Draco more than sex with Ginny, but he couldn't lie about having liked it at all. "But with you!?" he asked incredulously.

"Is that the only objection you have?"

Harry nodded, but amended, "And that I was drunk."

"I am very beautiful; you told me so yourself over and over again." Draco may have been the one who woke up the most hung over, but he still remembered the things Harry had said to him in the heat of the moment. Later, the rest of the night would come back to him too.

"Shut up." Harry began to blush. He'd had about twice as much to drink as Draco, since he'd already been tipsy from the bar when he came home. As a result, his memory of the night was blurry and sluggish at best.

"You said I'm the most beautiful person you have ever seen, witch or wizard."

"Shut up!" Harry repeated and threw a pillow from the bed at Draco, who dodged it.

"You said I am more beautiful than your Weasley."

Harry didn't actually remember saying that, although he did concede that Draco had a very beautiful face. Draco's face was all harsh angles of the type that could only be described as ethereal. Ginny's face was square and strong, lending an air of handsomeness. They were opposites, but he was attracted to them both.

"No, I didn't," Harry denied.

"Go ahead, keep telling yourself that."

"I didn't." Eyes darting around the room, Harry added, "And this never happened."

"Don't tell me you are still going to marry the Weasley girl now that you have admitted to yourself that you are gay."

"I'm not gay; I'm bi. And yes, I'm still going to marry her, so keep your mouth shut."

Harry thought for sure that Draco wouldn't agree and that he'd somehow have to bribe Draco. What he didn't see coming was Draco's easy surrender.

"Alright, it's your life. If you want to build it on top of a web of lies, why should I care?" Draco asked rhetorically. He didn't want to be the scape goat for what had happened. He wanted Harry to end it with Ginny, because Ginny was all wrong for Harry. Draco didn't want to be blamed for breaking them up.

Taken aback, Harry blinked, his mouth hanging open. "You won't tell Ginny?" he asked, just to make sure.

"Why would I tell her? I think it'll be a laugh when the divorce comes around." That there would be a divorce, if there was ever a marriage, seemed inevitable to Draco.

"Alright then, as long as you don't tell." Only then did it occur to Harry that he was planning on lying to his fiancé. He felt bad about it, but what choice did he have? Ginny would freak if she ever found out; she hated Draco.

Draco nodded, as if Harry had any right to demand his silence.

Head hurting, Harry then went off in search of a hangover potion of his own. He found his supply in a cupboard in the kitchen. He downed a vial, before fixing himself a soothing cup of tea. He sat at the table, mug in hand, contemplating the previous night. It wasn't until the floo roared to life that he realized that it was a weekday and he was late for training.

The head in the fireplace belonged to Lieutenant Stevenson, which was odd, because he wasn't the one in charge of Auror training; Lieutenant Grubbly-Plank was. He exchanged greetings with Harry in a tone that conveyed seriousness, but not in the stern voice that would indicate Harry was in trouble.

"Look, I know I'm late. I'll get dressed and come in right now," Harry said.

"No need; you called last night and reported your family emergency. You can have the day off. I was calling to keep you up to date on the situation. So far we've found no one with information on Lucius Malfoy. Even more disturbing, the Austrian Ministry did not bother investigating. They took the report on Narcissa Malfoy's contact with them and left it at that. They don't care, because Lucius is one of our citizens, not one of theirs. They don't want him there, due to his role in the war, but aren't willing to bother extraditing him either," Stevenson replied.

Up until now, Harry hadn't remembered what had started last night's drinking binge. Now he felt like an arse for not being more considerate of Draco's feelings. Here Harry was concerned with Ginny not finding out, when Draco's father was missing.

Harry nodded, urging Stevenson to continue.

"With the Fidelius on the Malfoy estate in Austria, we can't fire-call anyone in the Malfoy family for additional information. We've sent out owls, but they might take days to make the trip. Would it be possible for you to contact Narcissa Malfoy and ask her to fire-call me?"

That didn't seem like a difficult task, given that Narcissa was probably as eager as Draco to have Lucius back. Harry himself didn't know how to get a hold of Narcissa, but he was certain Draco would. Thus he agreed and quickly ended the call.

Draco was back in his room, in the middle of getting dressed in fresh robes. He'd forgotten his fears for his father, with it all coming back to him upon hearing Harry's request. He sagged back onto the bed, fresh worry on his face, and agreed to make the call to his mother.

Harry followed Draco into the drawing room and tried to eavesdrop on the conversation, but it wasn't in English and a firecall was harder to follow from this end. They spoke in that other language Draco had a habit of slipping into when talking to Leo. Narcissa voice could be heard coming out of the fireplace, short and clipped, but not hysterical or obviously worried. There was a bit from Draco that sounded like an angry shout and then a softer apology, followed by some indignation on Draco's part. Harry didn't know the words, but Draco was very expressive when talking with Narcissa, and neither worry nor concern for Lucius seemed to be the focus of this conversation.

"Well? What did she say?" Harry prompted, when Draco ended the floo connection.

"It was all a misunderstanding," Draco said with a sigh, sitting back on his knees on the floor with his weight resting on his arms.

"What? No. What happened?"  
"It wasn't an Auror who took my father away from his shopping, but the bookie he owed. The elf was mistaken."

"So a bookie kidnapped your father?"

"Not exactly. There's a card club he likes to frequent and apparently he got ahead of himself and bet more money than he had on him at the time. The bookie saw him and insisted he return right then to pay it off. And Father being Father, decided to play a few hands before leaving. He lost track of time and forgot to tell mother where he'd gone."

"What about the witness who said he was kidnapped?"

"The witness was just the shop keeper's elf, who told our elf. He was overexcited and didn't know what he had seen. Father is home now and says he wasn't kidnapped, only asked forcibly to go."

"Forcibly?"  
"At wand point," Draco clarified. "But he won't press charges."

"Why not? You can't just force someone to go with you at wand point."

Draco just shrugged and said, "Father likes his club." He didn't like it, but he couldn't control his father. If truth be told, he was rather sick of the wizard, which was one of the reasons he'd left the safe house in Austria. The other reasons being that the house was too small and that they'd had too many arguments about Leo. Draco loved his son unconditionally, but Leo looked too much like Harry for Lucius to do the same. Lucius wanted a blond haired, grey eyed, pointy faced, pureblooded heir, not the grandson he'd gotten. Leo was still a Malfoy though, and that at least meant a certain level of entitlement, which was why Lucius tolerated the child as much as he did.

Harry sighed in frustration, but he could see no point wasting further time and effort on Lucius Malfoy. Thus he gave up and fire-called in to Stevenson to pass along the news, before getting ready to go to work. He was late, but he wasn't in trouble, because it was blamed on Lucius' sort-of kidnapping. He did, however, receive shit for it all day from the other trainees, especially Ron. At least they didn't know about the gay almost-sex.

* * *

Author's Note: At first I thought Draco was making the whole thing with his father up. But then I thought that Draco was getting a bit too manipulative and that Lucius is certainly capable of getting his arse in trouble all on his own. It's time for Draco and Harry's relationship to start moving in a healthier direction. Although Harry cheating on Ginny isn't exactly healthy. What do you think?

Please Review!


	13. Chapter 13

"Here Ginny, just give it a try. He's so adorable you can't resist," Angelina said, forcing Teddy onto a reluctant Ginny. His eyes were almost hazel now, after having been in Angelina's arms. They were generally blue, but could shift towards hazel, green, and even grey, often mimicking the eye color of whoever was holding him. He took in everything, glancing from person to person, but never settling on one thing. Although his hair changed color more often than his mood, right now it was his preferred shade of aqua. And since there were no animals around, his facial features remained human.

Teddy was two months old and growing rapidly. He was no longer a sleepy newborn, but an increasingly active infant. He could hold his head up and had just started sitting up on his own. He showed no sign of turning over and hated being on his side or his stomach, but he could sit up for hours if propped up and for minutes without support. He was always reaching out, trying to grab something and when he did, it went straight back to his mouth. But, it wasn't often that his aim was true.

Ginny had tried protesting all day, but for some reason Angelina just didn't seem to believe her that she didn't want to hold the baby. And Harry was egging her on with a, "Come on, Gin."

"Even I held him," Ron added.

And so Ginny took Teddy and tried to hold him without dropping him. She didn't see what the point was, really. He was small and his face wrinkled up into a frown when she held him. He smelled bad half the time and was always spitting up on people, which was why she was holding him out, away from her body. Perhaps that had something to do with the annoying fusing sounds he was making. But he could hold his head up fine and he wasn't in any danger being held under the armpits like that, so no one stopped her.

It was the weekend after Harry's mistake with Draco and he hadn't told Ginny about it. It was an accident and he was certain she'd blow it all out of proportion. She'd probably insist he kick Draco out and never see the wizard again. That wasn't going to happen, because he was not going to turn Leo out. He was confident that he wouldn't make the same mistake with Draco again, so there was no reason to turn his son's life upside down. Thus he lied and he'd almost manage to forget about the lie and stop feeling guilty over it.

Harry was at a family barbeque over at the Weasleys with Ginny and trying to act as if nothing had happened. Dromeda and Teddy were there along with George's friends Angelina and Lee. Luna and Neville were around too, standing with Sydney and Alice, who were in Gryffindor with Ginny. Even Percy had come and was talking with Bill and Fleur, his date Audrey by his side.

Ginny had only seen Teddy three times now and was not at all comfortable with the baby, but Teddy was Harry's godson and he wanted her involved in the baby's life. He imagined that once they were married, they'd have both boys on weekends and build forts out of sheets and go flying in the park. Unfortunately, fondness towards and aptitude for babies was just another thing she did _not _have in common with Draco; not even when it came to Teddy.

"He looks just like Tonks, doesn't he?" Harry asked, leaning over Ginny to fawn at the baby in her arms. He hoped that doing so would help her see how important this was to him. Maybe if she put a little effort into it, she'd get better at it.

"I see Professor Lupin in him," Angelina said, from Ginny's other side. Angelina clearly loved babies and hadn't left Teddy's side the whole afternoon.

"Yeah, I guess," Ginny said noncommittally. She tried to finger the blue hair to emphasize just how little the baby looked like Remus, but that was a bad move. She was already holding him out at an awkward angle and by removing her second hand from gripping the baby, he became unbalanced and slipped out of her hold.

"Ginny!" Harry cried, darting down with seeker reflexes to catch Teddy just before the baby hit the ground. He made the catch, but Teddy still started screaming as he pulled the baby in to cradle against his chest.

"What happened?" Molly called out, bustling towards them.

"Ginny dropped 'em," Angelina answered.

"I didn't mean to; he just fell," Ginny said defensively.

"No one means to drop a baby, Ginny," Harry replied, somewhat peeved at his girlfriend.

Harry had no doubt that if it had been Draco holding Teddy, the baby wouldn't have fallen nor gotten a single scratch. In fact, the last time Teddy and Dromeda had stopped by Grimmauld Place, Draco had held Teddy for the better part of an hour, while Dromeda sat holding Leo. And while Ginny sometimes seemed jealous of Teddy, Draco strangely wasn't, despite the fact that Draco was the one with Harry's kid.

"Here, give him over," Molly said drying her hands off on a dishrag before reaching out for Teddy.

Teddy was mostly quieting down, but Harry complied anyway, because of the daggers Ginny was shooting the baby. As soon as Molly was back inside, he asked, "What's wrong Gin? It's okay, you know; I caught him before you could do any damage."

"Harry, I've just decided that I don't want kids. They're bloody little nightmares, seriously. Besides, you've already signed away your inheritance to Leo, so by the time you leave me my share, there won't be anything left for any more kids," Ginny said.

"But I will earn plenty of money to leave our children. Leo isn't getting my investment in George's store or any money I make myself. And there is talk of awarding me some prize for defeating Voldemort. I was going to donate any prize money to the war orphans, but if it means that much to you, I can put it into a trust for our kids." Draco didn't know about the investment, so it wasn't included in the document Harry had signed.

"George's shop is doing rather well," Ginny conceded. "But, Ministry officials don't make that much and the Ministry can't afford to give you any prize money for all of that work. If there is money, it will come from private citizens. But the richest private citizens were all on the other side, so I highly doubt you will be paid. You already have Leo and Teddy, so you don't need another kid. It won't be a problem, will it? You don't need more than two."

Harry had to stop and think about that one. He'd always imagined himself with a house full of children. Yes he had suddenly found himself with two, but were they enough? Was he willing to end all his dreams of having more kids, because Ginny didn't like them? What would it be like to grow old with her, without any children of their own? Leo would live with Draco for the most part and Teddy with Dromeda, leaving Harry's home void of the pitter patter of little feet.

"I don't know," Harry admitted.

"Sure you will; you're a guy. Blokes don't want kids," Ginny said.

Harry didn't know what to say to that. He was indeed a bloke, but he also wanted kids. Ginny didn't seem to understand.

When Harry didn't respond, Ginny asked, "What are you thinking? Is it still about Teddy? You said yourself; he's fine."  
"Well yes, he's fine, but Draco won't be when he finds out. I doubt he'll ever let you hold Leo now." Harry only said it because he was still upset about Ginny's last comment and he couldn't think of anything else, besides those two things. He didn't want to discuss her lack of a desire for children anymore, so he went with this instead.

"I don't care if he never lets me hold the little brat. Why would I even want to? He's like Teddy, only worse, because he's a Malfoy," Ginny said petulantly.

"Ginny! He's a baby," Harry cried in disbelief. And as far as he could tell, Leo had his happy disposition, not Draco's. Leo smiled and laughed at everything and although he could copy Draco's scowl, he hadn't yet mastered a scathing retort, so what was there not to like? And Leo looked exactly like Harry, except for maybe his nose was starting to come in a bit pointy, his forehead a bit more graceful looking, and his hair slightly tamer; Harry found just the sight of the baby inescapably endearing and couldn't help the automatic warm fuzzy feeling in his chest.

"Alright, prepare to be dazzled all you poor sods! The whiz-bangs are ready!" George cried at that moment, setting off the first of his firework show. That effectively ended the conversation concerning babies between Harry and Ginny.

* * *

A few hours later, Ginny pulled Harry away from the crowd and snuck him upstairs to her room. They were snogging for only a second when she slipped her hand down his pants and said, "We need to hurry, so we're not found out."

Harry wasn't even hard. Ginny started stroking him, but all he could think about was the close call with Teddy earlier and the fact that she didn't want kids. Then there was the vitriol she'd spilled about Leo. Maybe it was just jealousy or misplaced anger at Draco, but he was thinking twice about his plans to spend the rest of his life with her. If he was forced to choose between her and his two boys, he didn't know which one he'd pick.

"Harry! Are you concentrating here? We need to hurry this up before my parents notice we're missing," Ginny said, still tugging at Harry's flaccid penis.

"Erm, yeah, maybe we should just not do this right now, Ginny," Harry said, pulling Ginny's hand away from his bits.

"Do you want a BJ? I know it's like a week since we've gotten away from Ron."

The last time Ginny had sucked Harry off it was inside the girl's bathroom at the bar they frequented with Ron after getting out of Auror training. Hiding from her parents and brothers wasn't exactly brilliant and he was beginning to wonder what the point of it all was, since they were engaged now and she hadn't exactly been a virgin when they'd gotten together. He wasn't even her second or her third, but her fourth, since she'd lost her virginity back in the summer before her fourth year.

"No, it's alright. Let me start by doing you," Harry said, pushing her back on the bed with little enthusiasm.

Harry knew she expected him to eat her out, but at the moment he was doing it out of obligation rather than desire. He pushed her short skirt up and pulled her panties off. But when he had a mouth full of clit and two fingers inside her, all he could think about was Draco. Draco's body pressed against his, not hers. The feel of Draco's cock under his hands, even if there was a barrier of cloth in the way, not her hot naked flesh that was actually there in that moment. He looked up at her face and was momentarily disappointed to see red hair instead of blond and broad features instead of pointy. He had a suspicion that sucking cock wouldn't be as easy as sucking a clit, but that didn't stop him from wishing it was cock he was sucking and not Ginny.

This inability to get off with Ginny was rather new for Harry. Given the experience she had, she'd known just how to handle and ride a stallion. Harry, having been a virgin, was like putty in her hands, melting at her every caress. Only now it was growing old and rushed and not exciting him in the way she once had. Maybe if he could just fuck her one more time, they could get that passion back. But her parents had an absolute ban on sex.

"I want to fuck you again Gin," Harry said pulling his mouth away from her.

"I want that too Harry. Do it right now," Ginny urged. She wasn't worried about pregnancy, because she had a morning after contraceptive she could take when she got carried away.

"But what about what your parents said. Birth control and STDs and whatnot. I would love to have a baby with you, but just not right now. Preferably after you finish Hogwarts."

"We don't have STDs. You were a virgin and I was tested, so that's not a problem. As for birth control, I brewed a batch myself. I have a vial in that cupboard right over there. I could take it in a second and then we can fuck all night like gnomes." She'd always had a supply of the potion while at school too, but in the beginning she had to buy it.

Harry was tempted, but in the end he decided to stop, because he didn't want to do this in her parents' house when they had already been lectured twice. "No, not here Gin."

"Then where? Grimmauld Place?"

"No, that would ruin the mood."

"Then where else is there?"  
"Our spot in the woods. What about using that camping tent that Bill and Fleur gave to Hermione for the Horcrux hunt? We had it, but never used it. We could find out where it's gone off to. We could camp for the night in the forest."

"Camping, huh?"

"Yes, camping," Harry confirmed with a mischievous smirk.

"Yeah, just finish what you were doing first."

Ginny's fingers carded through Harry's hair. And then she pushed his head down onto her groin and he found himself once again with a mouth full of clit, imaging it was cock. He went at the process mechanically, triggering the areas that he knew would make her scream, but found surprisingly little joy or excitement from it.

That soon done, they cleaned up and went back to the party. Harry then surreptitiously asked Ron if he knew where Hermione's beaded bag was, because he wanted some of his belongings he'd left in it. Ron did indeed have the bag, which he was keeping for Hermione while she was out of the country. Ron handed it over to Harry, and left the room, allowing Harry to sneak the tent out. He then shrunk the tent and shoved it into his pocket, before returning the bag to Ron.

That night, Ginny told her parents she was sleeping over at Luna's, while Harry let Draco know he'd be out all night with the guys. They then met up in the woods, where they set up the tent and erected a handful of wards and security spells. It took about an hour to set up, but it was totally worth it, because once it was done, they had an entire little plot of forest to themselves for the night.

The first thing Ginny did when she went inside was to strip down completely, not even sparing her socks. Harry followed after, Ginny pulling at his clothes as well, trying to get them off faster. Then they were both naked and snogging on the bed and Ginny was ready for sex, only Harry still wasn't hard.  
"Just give me a minute," Harry said, pulling on himself, his eyes closed, and doing his best to picture Draco and not Ginny. It was Draco lying before him ready for sex. It was Draco kissing down his neck and Draco waiting to take his cock. And in that manner, he obtained an erection.

While Ginny waited for Harry, she drank her contraceptive potion and then lay back on the bed, her naked thighs spread wide. He started moving blind, his eyes still closed, and she humored him, guiding him to in between her thighs. He was able to do it from there, trying his best to pretend it was Draco. If he opened his eyes and looked up, he was so sure it would be Draco he saw, not Ginny.

Even with thinking of Draco, the sex was mediocre. It wasn't possible to maintain the illusion continuously, so he was frequently disturbed by the realization that he really was with Ginny. Thus he was determined to make himself cum and end this as soon as possible, not paying attention to what it was like for her.

When Harry finished, he lay back and felt like a coward and a cad. Ginny sat up looking at him, wondering what was wrong, because he hadn't gotten her off and normally he did. "What's wrong with you tonight?" she asked.

"Nothing, just tired. Did you finish?"

"No." Ginny's tone was exasperated, as if she couldn't understand how he didn't know that.

"I'll finger you then," Harry offered, although his heart wasn't into it.

Ginny agreed, so that was what he did. Afterwards he cleaned up and went back to Draco. He left her there with promises that he'd come back to put away the tent in the morning.

* * *

Author's note: Harry is still acting like a jerkwad in my opinion, but I did warn for hetero-sex, drunken frotting, and mildly cheating Harry. Ginny and Draco have both behaved badly, and now it's Harry's time to mess up. Harry is starting to develop feelings for Draco and fighting it. I do hate cheaters, so I'm going to try to keep it to the bare minimum though.

Up next will be another Draco, Harry, Teddy, and Leo chapter…

Please review!


	14. Chapter 14

On Wednesday morning that week, Harry, Ron, and the other Auror trainees were hanging around headquarters, waiting for Lieutenant Grubbly-Plank to show up to begin the day's lessons. Only she never showed and everyone usually in the office was strangely absent.

Fifteen minutes late, a shaggy haired office assistants named John walked in and announced, "Lieutenant Grubbly-Plank and all of the other qualified Aurors are off on a classified mission. You lot are to hold the fort for the day. Write up cases that come in, study for the make-up test if you didn't pass it the first time, physically train, or just go home. This is your chance to earn extra credit, so if you are behind, find something useful to do or otherwise use the time wisely. If you are at the Harry Potter level, you should probably just go home so that you don't make the rest of the recruits look bad. We'll contact you if there is an emergency."

There was a moment of silence and then the group erupted in chatter.

"Hear that, Harry? I should go home so that I don't make them look bad," Ron said smugly.

Harry cuffed Ron on the ear and replied, "Yeah, and if I'm not at Harry Potter level I don't know who is."

"What are you going to do with the day off? I'm thinking of heading over to George's shop and giving him a hand."

"I think I'll just go home. Maybe I'll visit Dromeda and Teddy. I haven't seen them since Ginny…"

"Since my sister almost made a baby omelet out of your godson?" Ron asked cheekily.

Harry had tried the avoidance tactic when it came to telling Draco about Ginny's accident, but that had failed miserably. Dromeda had told Draco, and Harry had gotten lectured both for not saying anything and for his fiancé dropping a child. Draco was of the opinion that they were supposed to inform each other of important events, so that they could coordinate the raising of their son accordingly. Something like this happening meant that Ginny should never be allowed to hold Leo, full stop. That was the type of thing Draco needed to know. And although it meant shattering the image of the happy family Harry had been picturing in his head, he reluctantly agreed that the ban was necessary. The alternative would surely lead to Draco tearing Ginny's head off for hurting his baby. Thus Harry had apologized, once again agreeing to keep her away from Leo, and promised in the future he would do a better job of keeping Draco informed.

"Yeah."

"You know, I'm rather grateful she wasn't born first. Imagine if she were older than me? I'd probably be mentally retarded from all the falls."

"You don't think she'd improve with time?"

"Doubt it, she's so stubborn. I mean, how much worse could someone possibly be with a baby? Mum says she's obstinate and doesn't want to learn."

That was what Harry feared. He let out a sigh of disappointment. "Anyway, I should get going before it's time for Teddy's morning nap," Harry said, walking towards the floo.

"See ya," Ron replied, following with the plan of flooing into George's shop.

"Later," Harry said, stepping through the floo and calling out the name of the Tonks family home.

Harry stepped into the living room to the sight of two people he didn't think he would find here. He'd assumed Draco and Leo would be at home at Grimmauld Place, but instead Draco was sitting on Dromeda's couch. Leo, who had just learned to crawl, was on all fours on the carpet. Startled by the sound of the floo, Leo fell onto his tummy and started crying.

Harry moved forward to pick the crying baby up. He bounced Leo to calm his son and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Leo and I have been going with Dromeda and Teddy to infant story time at the Puddlemere Library for over a month now. What are you doing here? I thought you were going to work?" Draco asked in reply.

"Surprise day off," Harry said with a shrug. "I thought I'd pay Dromeda and Teddy a visit and see how they're doing. Where are they, by the way?"

"In the nursery; last minute nappy change." Draco inclined his head towards the stairs that led to the two bedrooms. "You can go with us if you want."

Harry nodded his understanding and took Leo in the direction of the staircase. It was a small two story cottage with the two bedrooms and a second loo on the upper floor.

As Harry and Leo reached the top of the stairs, there came a voice from inside the nursery. "Draco, I'm almost ready. Just let me get Teddy's nappy bag and the books I checked out last week." He recognized it as belonging to Dromeda.

"It's not Draco," Harry said, entering the room.

Dromeda startled standing there in front of Teddy's pram, having just buckled the baby in. She placed her hand over her heart and said, "Oh my! Harry, what are you doing here?"

"Day off. I fancied spending some time with Teddy. Is it alright if I tag along?"

It wasn't that the idea of children's story time at the local library sounded interesting to Harry, but that the idea of Dromeda and Draco meeting without his knowledge was intriguing. Sure he knew she brought Teddy over sometimes while he was at work and that Draco on occasion took Leo to her house, but he didn't know they had regular outings like story time scheduled. And he couldn't picture Draco sitting around with a bunch of mothers with babies while some old librarian read them stories. He knew Draco was great with Leo and Teddy, but he never would've been able to imagine it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes; this was the same thing.

"It's fine with me dearie, but I'm not entirely sure it's your type of thing. Beside Draco and me, it's all mothers with their babies. There is a lot of female talk and gossip at these things." Dromeda turned then and noticed Leo in Harry's arm and asked him, "Are you ready to go Leo?"

Leo nodded vigorously and Harry just shrugged, before grabbing Teddy's nappy bag with his free arm. He didn't bother looking around for the pram he'd purchased for both boys, since he knew Draco wouldn't have brought it. No matter how safe the thing was or how many safety charms placed on it, Draco still had his aversion. It only got used when Harry suggested it for their weekend trips to the park and even then it was only a matter of minutes before Draco would stop him and retrieve Leo to manually carry. That was just one of Draco's ticks: that he liked to carry his son close to him. Harry didn't really mind and knew that if he wanted it, he'd find the double-pram in the closet in the nursery, where it always was.

Dromeda picked up the pile of books, depositing them in the basket of Teddy's pram, before steering the pram out into the living room. Draco stood as they entered the room and got the front door for them. Together the five of them walked the two blocks to the local wizarding library.

In the middle of a cluster of whimsical wizarding houses held up by magic was a small wizarding market square. They past a grocer, an apothecary, a tailor, and a cobbler. The town wasn't nearly as big as Diagon Alley, but it had the necessities. And at the end of the lane of shops was a large multistory building with a sign that read, "Puddlemere Public Services: Proudly Serving Your Needs Since 1721. The entirety of the wizarding town of Puddlemere's public services were housed in this building. The bottom floor contained the small wizarding elementary school, while upper floors contained the offices of the one Auror and the one healer stationed in town, along with the town government, the library, and the senior center.

They entered the government building and took the lift to the second floor where the library was. The town library was clearly decorated for little kids and an entire half of the floor space was dedicated to the children's section. Draco tugged Leo out of Harry's arms and entered said section and the others followed.

They passed a wall with a large green bulletin board. On it in large colorful letters read, "There was an old witch who lived in a shoe who had so many children, she didn't know what to do." It was decorated with a picture of a wizarding house shaped like a shoe, with windows and doors cut out of it and a large number of ginger haired children running about. At the bottom of the board sat a stool and on the stool was placed a book called The Witch Who Lived in a Shoe. Harry smiled, because it reminded him of the Weasleys and he wondered if it was written with them in mind.

There were several other similar displays featuring books titled, The Wand, the Potion, and the Star, The grindylow grinned and said, "Oh no!", and The Dragon Named Blagon, the last one carrying her flagon and pulling a wagon full of dragon eggs.

They made their way to a large circular rug where a number of mothers with babies were already milling about. Some were sitting crisscross on the rug with babies in their laps, while others were pulling babies out of prams, a few were stopping crawling babies from messing up the bookshelves, and one was even chasing after a baby who was running about.

A short but exceedingly busty witch with a baby girl about Leo's age on her hip approached Draco, and asked, "How is that blocked duct doing this week, eh Draco?"

"Er fine, Terryn" Draco replied, just as Harry stepped out from behind him, visible to the witch for the first time.

"Oh! Is that the famous Harry Potter you've brought with ya? I thought you were broken up."

"Yes, he is. Terryn, this is Harry Potter. Potter, this is Terryn Bones nee Holloway; we went to school with her cousin Susan," Draco introduced. "And not only have we been broken up since forever, but he's engaged to the other woman."

"Er hi," Harry offered a nervous little wave.

"What's he doing here?" Another woman, this one taller, slender, and not nearly as well-endowed up top asked, having just captured a crawling baby and moved him back onto the rug.

"Becca, he is here because he had the day off and wanted to spend it with his boys," Draco answered.

"Alright, sit down and we'll get started!" A cheery pudgy older witch announced to the group. She wore a name tag that read Librarian Kyla.

Draco sat down on the rug with Leo in his lap next to Terryn, whose daughter was in her own lap. Harry sat on Draco's other side and Dromeda handed Teddy over.

"We seem to be a baby short. Would you boys mind if I pop upstairs to the Senior Center?" Dromeda asked.

"No, go right ahead, Auntie," Draco replied.

Harry wasn't so sure he wanted to be left alone with these women, but he knew Dromeda needed time off from Teddy, so he acquiesced. She left the group to sort out her library books, before heading up to the third floor.

They were soon listening to the pudgy old librarian read them all a book about a unicorn.

"The unicorn glances, the unicorn prances, the unicorn dances, the unicorn enhances; the unicorn's chances with its lance in that stance are very good indeed," the librarian read. As she read, a crystal ball projected images of the unicorn that changed to match the story. At the end, the unicorn stood holding a lance as if in a jousting competition. It was comical after the previous images of the dancing and prancing unicorn.

"Is this what all of the books are like? If I'd known baby books were this awful I might not have agreed to come so easily," Harry whispered, leaning into Draco's ear to make sure Draco was the only one who received his message.

They had started off with a wizarding version of Are You Sleeping?, which wasn't so bad, but Harry couldn't stand this unicorn story.

"It will get better," Draco replied tersely, trying to keep Leo interested in the book and not crawling away from him.

Harry was pleasantly surprised when the next book turned out to be muggle, filled with a number of short rhymes and songs he remembered from his own childhood; the images from the crystal ball even appeared muggle drawn. Not that the Durselys had read or sang to him, but he'd been in the room often enough when Aunt Petunia read or sang to Dudley. And even more surprising was that all the mothers and Draco sang along, as if they sang these songs every week. Harry tried to remember the words, but found himself struggling to remember the words to Baby Elephant, Swing High, Swing Low, Piggy on the Railway, and London Bridge.

After the singing break the librarian read a story called The Humpy-Backed Goblin, about a pair of goblins with humps on their backs. When one of the goblins stuck his large nose into the other's business, the pixies cursed him with a second hump. And again the crystal ball displayed the corresponding images.

Then they went around the circle, each mother telling what their child learned that week or what problems they were having, with the other mothers offering words of advice or encouragement. One witch overshared and mention that she and her husband had finally had sex again; the first since her child was born, which earned her a bit of raucous hooting from the other mums. Harry felt his cheeks flushing at that. Draco was even redder, the tips of his ears turning the same bright rosy color as his cheeks.

When they came around to Draco, he said, "I'm doing better; the pain is gone. Leo has been crawling all over the place. He's faster than last week, so he's gotten into a number of things while my head was turned."

Harry hadn't realized that Draco had been in pain last week. Terryn had mentioned a blocked duct and although he didn't know what she meant, he began to think the two were connected. Perhaps Draco had been in pain last week with a real problem and not even told him about it, but told this Terryn woman and the library mum's group.

Then it was Harry's turn and he looked down at his godson in his arms and tried to think. "Er, uh, Teddy, yeah," he started off not at all intelligently. "Teddy sits up and this morning his hair was fluorescent yellow."

"We already know that! We've seen him with fluorescent yellow hair before and he's been sitting up in here for ages," a woman on the other side of the circle heckled.

"Now Joan, it's best not to judge. Auror Potter here obviously doesn't spend as much time with his children as Dromeda and Draco do," the librarian moderated.

"I spend more time with Leo; he lives with me. Could I do Leo?" Harry asked, wanting these witches to like him.

"Go ahead," the librarian answered.

"Alright, well Leo caught a pixie hiding in the curtains last night and gnawed on the creature. I think he's teething," Harry replied.

"If he is, I'll bash your nose in for giving him the idea," Draco said jovially. He'd thought Leo was teething before, but had jumped the gun. No teeth had erupted and the symptoms had gone away. But then last night Leo had had a fever and his gums were inflamed, indicating that he really was teething this time. It wasn't a fun night for Draco and he really did feel like blaming Harry for it.

"Yes, well he must've gotten the idea from our book last week Henry, My Son where the little boy eats a sprite," the librarian said and the mothers added murmurs of agreement. "Moving on. We have one more song before our parting exorcise. It's time for The Rattlin' Bog!"

The mothers clapped their hands or showed their babies how to clap hands. And then they were all signing a song about a tree in a valley that everyone but Harry seemed to have memorized. At least the crystal ball projected the words underneath the scenes of a picturesque valley.

Finally, they all rose to play ring around the rosie. Teddy, being the youngest, was the most difficult to play with. Although, the mums of older kids didn't seem to be any better off chasing after runaway mobile babies.

"Here, we can switch for this if you want," Draco said, passing Leo over, and taking Teddy in turn.

Leo's two months of age he had of Teddy made quite the difference. Instead of just sitting or lying there, he could actually move and get into stuff. Harry sat him down on his bum and stood behind him in the circle. Leo instantly began to crawl away.

Meanwhile Draco was just holding Teddy in the air under the armpits. Unlike Ginny, Draco had Teddy close to his body with both arms wrapped tightly around the small body, but facing out into the circle. When Harry looked over at them, Draco smirked and said, "You are the one who fell for it, PaPa."

Harry sighed and went after Leo. By the time they got back into the circle, the music was already going and the adults were carrying the children in a circle. Harry quickly slotted into the circle next to Draco. The song ended with the lot of them plopping the babies gently down on their bums, which even Teddy could do, since he could sit up. Draco obviously knew that Teddy was the easier child to play with and so had switched. Harry found himself not minding, because it meant he got a chance to hold Leo too, even if his son didn't want to stay in place.

"And that's a wrap for this week. Next week we will be singing I'm Gonna Tell and The False Night Upon The Road. We have booklets with each for those of you who do not already own the master book. Stay safe, learn, and grow; I will hopefully see you all next week," Librarian Kyla announced brightly, dismissing the group.

"Alright, time to find my aunt," Draco said picking Leo up and leaving Teddy to Harry.

"Where is she?" Harry asked, picking Teddy up and heading towards where his pram was parked on the edge of the room.

"Upstairs."

Draco went off to talk to the other mums then, while Harry retrieved the pram and buckled Teddy in. When Harry looked up again, Draco was standing in a sea of women with babies, seemingly the center of attention. Harry approached with the pram and the nearest woman turned to look at him with a scowl on her face.

"Shame on you Harry Potter for leaving poor Draco when he was pregnant with your son," the witch said.

Draco stepped up behind the witch, holding Leo on his hip and put his free hand on her shoulder. "Stand down Mary," he said.

The witch, apparently Mary, bristled, but fell in behind Draco. He broke away and started towards the lift and Harry followed. Draco turned and called out farewells to the women, most of whom were staying to check out books.

They went up to the next floor where the senior center was. There was a group of elderly wizards on one side playing wizard chest. Dromeda was on the other side playing shuffleboard with a couple of witches.

A blue haired witch turned to Dromeda when they approached and said, "Is that your Harry Potter you are always talking about?"

"Yes, it is," Dromeda said to her friend, before turning to them. "How was story time boys?"

"Fine," Draco answered.

"It was interesting," Harry added.

"Right, well best get home before Leo needs his feeding. Teddy already looks half asleep in his pram. Best recline the seat," Dromeda replied, adjusting the pram, so that her grandson was lying down and adding a bag of fresh library books to the basket.

Then they went back down the lift and exited the building, heading back to Dromeda's house.

"I didn't know your house was so close to a wizarding town center like this. That will be great for when Teddy starts school," Harry said.

"Yes, but Draco and I were talking about putting Teddy in school with Leo," Dromeda replied.

"The school in Wiltshire is smaller, but better. Our community is richer, so we pay more for the best teachers and have lots of extracurricular activities, such as music, art, and Latin," Draco said. "It's more expensive, but worth it."

"It's a little farther from his house, but they allow floo entry into the school from the houses in their area, provided they have registered children. Teddy could floo from here to the Malfoy Manor and then he and Leo could floo into school together every day," Dromeda said.

"Their playground is better too," Draco added.

"Sounds like the two of you have their entire lives planned out," Harry commented.

"Yes well, it's not like they can go to school in London, now is it?" Draco asked in reply.

"Why can't they?" Harry asked. He'd never even realized that there were wizarding elementary schools around. He didn't know if there were only the two, or if every town had them. He was fairly certain Ron had been home schooled by his mother, but that may just have been because they were too poor to afford the local school.

"Harry, the London school has a very poor reputation. It's overcrowded with third rate teachers and poorly kept up facilities. Only the poorest parents send their children there. But it is the oldest school, so many of the pureblood families still attend, especially those who cannot afford to do otherwise," Dromeda said.

"It was where Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, and Millicent Bulstrode went," Draco said.

"Oh, so a stronghold for the old ways?" Harry asked, leaving out that none of those three were known for their intelligence. He had to agree that sending a child to the London school sounded like a horrible idea and was glad Draco wasn't suggesting it.

"Yes," Draco answered.

By then they were back to Dromeda's. Harry picked the pram up over the step, while Draco took Leo inside. By the time Harry and Dromeda got the pram inside, Draco and Leo had disappeared upstairs. Dromeda positioned Teddy's pram in the living room and left Teddy sleeping inside.

"Well the fun is over for the moment. Draco is feeding Leo and Teddy is out cold," Dromeda said. "Did you have anything else in mind for your day off?"

"Oh, er, nothing really. I guess I'll just go home now," Harry said weakly.

"I'll tell Draco where you went," Dromeda replied.

Harry nodded and apparated home. He had a lot to think about and he found himself drifting into Leo's nursery. He sat on the rocker and let the gentle back and forth motion soothe him as he thought. Then he saw a familiar looking brightly colored book on the lower shelf of the end table that sat right next to the rocker. He'd never noticed the book before today, but he had a feeling it had been there for some time. He flipped the cover and quickly spotted all of the wizarding songs and stories they had sung that day. In addition there were titles such as If You Will Marry Me, Three Craws Sat Upon a Wa' & The Craw's Ta'en the Kneazle, and When I Was Young, I Had No Sense.

Harry started to read the Scottish story about the crows and the kneazle, but found his attention drifting away. There was just so much to consider, from wizarding elementary schools to Draco's apparent clique with the library mothers. He absolutely hadn't expected that Draco was the type of parent to go to that type of thing. Not only was Draco going regularly, he was friends with all of the other mothers, who apparently didn't think highly of Harry. The mothers thought Harry was horrible for having left Draco pregnant in favor of dating Ginny Weasley. Harry had never considered that Ginny might be thought of as the other woman in some people's eyes.

Then there was the fact that Harry was slowly getting to see another, softer side of Draco. The part of Draco who took care of Leo and put the baby's needs above all others, Harry found endearing. Draco was more open when dealing with Leo, sacrificing his image to sit in a circle and sing silly children's songs. Draco was putting all of his effort into giving Leo the ideal childhood, with trips to the library and walks in the park.

And then Harry realized something about Draco. _Draco loves Leo unconditionally_, he thought. He knew instantly that it was true and it brought a giant smile to his face. He was happy his son had a parent like Draco. Draco would make certain Leo had everything Harry had never had. Draco had even said that his reason for coming back was to make Harry play his part in Leo's life, because it was what was best for the baby.

It wasn't just some scheme to make Harry miserable as Ginny would insist, but an altruistic desire to give Leo a normal life. And despite Leo's questionable beginnings, Draco was doing his best to make people believe there had been a secret relationship with Harry, for Leo's sake. Draco was sacrificing his image in favor of portraying the jilted lover, so that Leo would think he was conceived in love and not with black magic.

It all came down to one simple fact. Harry had unwittingly lucked out in this situation. He had a child with someone who was better with children than Ginny was and would put that child's needs above all others. He'd miscalculated in thinking that just because Ginny was from a big family that she'd want children and be good with them. But being the youngest child, she didn't have the experience or the fondness with them that ran in her family. Harry hadn't planned it or wanted it this way, but the way things were suddenly looked better than he could ever have hoped. Draco was the perfect father and Leo would benefit from it.

That is what was going through Harry's mind when Pig winged his way into the nursery and sat on his shoulder. Tied to the owl's leg was a scroll of parchment, which he untied to find a note from Ginny. He freed pig, who took off circling excitedly about his head as he read.

_Harry—_

_ Where are you? Just saw Ron, who told me about your day off. Why didn't you tell me? We should go see that muggle thing you tell me about, a move-ee. I'm getting dressed now and flooing to Grimmauld. Be ready._

_ —Ginny_

Well that settled what Harry was going to do with the rest of his day off.

* * *

Author's Note: I had fun looking up British children's songs and stories for this. What did you think of their little outing?

Up next I think Ginny will start to get on Harry's nerves… A reviewer mentioned though that I seem to have left out all of Ginny's good qualities, so the story is getting a bit unbalanced towards Ginny bashing. The trouble is, I can't remember what her good qualities are. Do any of you know? Whatever they are, I think it would be fun if Harry suddenly found them all annoying.

Please Review!


	15. Chapter 15

Ginny arrived when Harry was still changing out of his maroon Auror robes and into a muggle t-shirt and jeans. She was mad he hadn't thought of her first and had been about to pass away his vacation without her. He was mad that she was mad and about the way she'd ordered him to take her out. He'd had such a nice morning with his boys and this was the entirely wrong ending to that. Ginny's loud high pitched voice started to combine with all of the earlier obnoxious singing, to produce a mild headache. He was worn out from his morning and what he needed was a bit of peace and quiet. He would've preferred staying in to a quiet dinner tonight, but that wasn't what he got.

Soon Ginny forgot all about her anger as Harry led her to a muggle movie theater in London, dazzled by the muggle lights and flashy posters. He wanted to see a movie called Dragon's Sun, but she didn't, because it didn't sound muggle enough. That was one of the things he had liked about her; not that she was bossy, but that she liked muggles. She was genuinely interested in how people live without magic. She was open-minded, friendly, and willing to give anyone a chance, to the point where she chatted up the handful of muggles they came across while waiting in line at the concession stand and sat next to in the theater while waiting for the movie to start. She was eager and excited; that used to make him eager and excited too, but today her energy just wasn't catching.

If you would've asked Harry a few years ago which sounded better, going to the movie theater with his girlfriend, or going to the library with Draco Malfoy and singing children's songs, he would've thought the answer was obvious. The thing was though, that Draco had an unfair advantage in the form of two babies. It wasn't just singing, it was smiles, excited babbling, laughter, and even a few giggles that the library show had managed to produce. It was the happiness of his little boys and that was something Draco, and not Ginny, had somehow cornered the market on. In comparison, the movie was loud and dull, the popcorn was stale, the seats were sticky, and his girlfriend's annoying voice was grating on his nerves.

They watched a chick-flick. It was a horrible sappy nightmare and Harry hated every minute of it. Maybe the library really had been more fun than the movies. It could also have had something to do with the fact that he had _wanted_ to go out with his boys, but had been _ordered_ out with Ginny. He had been given a choice with everything that had happened this morning, but this afternoon was an obligation.

Although, Draco could be bossy too, especially a few days ago. Last night Harry had taken it upon himself to help out with the baby after the pub, but sometimes Draco ordered him to help before he even realized help was needed. Last night it had been obvious though, because Leo was crying with a fever and swollen gums. Harry had offered on his own to watch Leo so that Draco could have a break. It wasn't even that hard, because all he'd had to do was recast the chilling charm on the teething ring, take the battered pixie out of Leo's mouth, and keep his son from trying to crawl down the stairs. Oh, and hold Leo down while Draco put the medicine dropper with the Willow Bark potion into their son's mouth. But really, once the potion was in the miniature scowling mouth, Leo had swallowed and the crying turned to whining.

The night before last, however, Draco had ordered Harry to take a sobriety potion and help him the moment he flooed home. But what had Draco told Harry to do? Call the owl Kevin in public? Grab Leo before the baby could crawl into the pile of droppings the owl had deposited on the drawing room floor? Hold the crying child while Draco vanished the owl droppings from the floor? Of course he wasn't going to let his son eat owl shite and he didn't need Draco to tell him to send a letter to Hermione in Australia to get Kevin out of the house. Let the owl pittle over the Indian subcontinent for a few days instead of leaving the untrained beast to muck up the owl cage again. That owl was a bloody menace; they needed to send it off to be trained. Why was it that Hedwig had come knowing not to defecate in the house and Kevin didn't?

And what else had Draco ordered Harry to do? Buy flavored Willow Bark potion, so that Leo wouldn't fuss so much about taking it? Visit his godson regularly? Make room in his house for Teddy's things? Be a part of Leo's life? Those demands didn't get on Harry's nerves, because they were things he would've done anyway. If Draco hadn't shown up and ordered him to be part of Leo's life and he'd known the baby was his, he would've tracked the Malfoys down to the ends of the Earth. He would've made Draco share Leo, Fidelius cottage in Austria or no. He had banished the most evil dark lord who ever lived, for Merlin's sake; just see what he'd do to that cottage the Malfoys were hiding in. It was a laugh thinking that he wouldn't.

Having gotten lost in his own thoughts about covert advanced charm breaking and untrained owls for a good part of the movie, Harry came back to reality and realized he had no idea what was happening in the show. He didn't know what was going on and didn't feel like watching the rest to find out. After a few more minutes, he excused himself, and apparated out of the back alley to the owl shop in Diagon Alley. There he scheduled one owl obedience class for the week after next. That was assuming Kevin made it back with a letter from Hermione by then. He splurged for the expensive variety where the owl was dropped off and trained _for_ the owner, not _with_ the owner. The last thing he wanted to do was train Draco's owl himself and Draco couldn't be expected to do it, because Draco had Leo.

When Harry returned to the movie theater, he found Ginny chatting up a pair of teenaged muggle girls in the lobby. Thankfully the movie was over, but he didn't feel like joining in the conversation. Ginny, on the other hand, couldn't stop gushing about the movie to her new girlfriends. When he tried to escort her out, she waved him aside and kept on talking. It was ten minutes and a promise to meet next week to go shopping, before she took their phone numbers, promised to call even though she didn't know how to use a phone, and _finally_ was ready to leave. She would later insist that Harry show her how to use a phone.

This was becoming an increasingly common pattern with them. Harry would want one thing, Ginny another, and she would end up getting her way. It had started after the war when he was so numb from all of the fighting and deaths that he didn't know what to do; she'd made the decisions then and led him through life, helping him to reassemble his life into a normal order. But she was continuing to take charge of his life, even though he was over the shock now. Last week he'd wanted Chinese takeout, she'd wanted to try the new American place, and they'd ended up with an awful greasy bucket of fried chicken and flavorless, dry scones. Probably the incident that stuck out most in his mind was in the weeks after the war, when he'd wanted to go to Lavender Brown's funeral, but they'd ended up at Colin Creevey's funeral instead. She'd insisted that they had to go, because Colin was in her year, but she failed to appreciate that Lavender had been in his year. The thought of it still brought a sinking feeling to his stomach.

Next they wandered around until they found a fastfood restaurant where they ordered chips and ice cream Sundays, because that was what Ginny fancied. She'd ordered while Harry was in the loo and hadn't bothered to order him an actual meal. He could have stood in the line for himself and ordered the fried fish he fancied, but he'd rather go home and eat Kreacher's left overs as he did every night; Draco always had the elf cook dinner and there was always extra set aside for him to gobble down after his evening of butterbeers in the pub. Thus he sat gloomily picking at the chips and ice cream, thinking about what Draco and Leo were eating that night.

"I had an owl from Sydney this morning. She invited us over to her place Friday. Alice and her new boyfriend Shane will be there; Demelza and Dennis too," Ginny said, implying that they had to go. Sydney Snyder and Alice Tolipan were Gryffindors in Ginny's year and her best friends. Shane Nelson was the boy Alice had been crushing on for ages, but had only recently worked up the courage to ask out. Demelza Robins and Dennis Creevey were also in Gryffindor, but one year younger, and were dating. Demelza had been on the Quidditch team with them, while Dennis was famous for being every bit as annoying as his late brother Colin.

Harry didn't say anything, instead waiting for the command he knew was coming. He sighed and rubbed his temples, trying to will his impending headache away.

"It's too bad we can't invite Stacy and Tricia," Ginny continued. Stacy and Tricia were the names of the muggles she'd just met. But the party was to be at Sydney's house, and she was a halfblood who still lived with her parents, including a pureblood father who wouldn't know how to wipe his arse without magic. There was no way to have the muggles over without them noticing that there was something strange about the wizarding house.

"We already told Neville we'd be at his place this Friday. His girlfriend Hannah is coming. Luna, Ron, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Laura, and the whole gang will be there," Harry said evenly, trying not to be peeved off over this. Ginny hadn't actually said they were ditching his friends in favor of hers; yet.

Laura had been a Hufflepuff in the year ahead of theirs and was Seamus' new older girlfriend. Parvati and Dean were now an item, so Luna and Ron were the only single ones in that group. But Luna was the type of girl to revel in being the odd one out, so it would surely be fine. And Ron wasn't really single, since he was devoutly loyal to Hermione, but she was still in Australia, so he'd be alone as usual.

"Again? I don't fancy spending all of my time with my brother and my ex-boyfriend," Ginny replied petulantly.

"Then why did you agree to it when I asked you?"

"I don't remember agreeing to it. I probably wasn't paying attention to you. You tend to go on boring tangents about your friends and your kids."

"My friends and my kids are boring, are they?" Harry asked angrily, standing up and jostling the small table in the process. He was still just as prideful as ever and he wasn't about to stand for this, even if it was Ginny, the love of his life. He'd put up with enough from her already and he'd officially had it.

"Sit down Harry. You'll not leave me alone in the middle of muggle London when I don't know where I am," Ginny commanded.

"Apologize then."

"No. I love Neville and Luna as much as you do; they were my friends first, remember?" This was entirely true in Luna's case, since she was in Ginny's year. As for Neville, Harry had got on with him before Ginny and had spent a lot of time with him fourth year. Ginny had gone to the ball with Neville that same year and always made an effort to include him. It was more like Neville was equally theirs. "But even you have to admit that we've been seeing a lot of them. Ron's my brother; I see him all of the time at home and don't want to spend all of my time with him too. And things are so awkward when Dean is around."

That was another thing Harry liked about Ginny: she collected misfits. Even Alice and Sydney had been unpopular dorks when she'd met them in her first year. Alice had been pathologically shy and although with Ginny's encouragement she was coming out of her shell, she was still on the shy side. Sydney's face was heavily scarred, due to a case of dragon pox she'd caught in her youth. Sydney now covered the craters with very thick makeup, but Ginny had befriended her beforehand. And because Ginny was friends with them, they became more popular.

"And Teddy and Leo?" Harry asked, slightly mollified and hoping Ginny would take that part back.

Unfortunately, Ginny was growing sick of Harry's bad mood and in the mood to lash out herself. She couldn't see what Harry saw in the babies, because she couldn't see past her own jealousy. She was bold, brave, and fierce, even when she was horribly wrong. Tired of sharing the spotlight, she blurted out the truth, "Are crying snotty nosed babies. They goo and turn you to goo. Honestly Harry, the way you go on about it." She didn't finish that last sentence, likely taking in the red color to Harry's angry face.

"I'm leaving. Stay here and I'll send Ron for you," Harry announced, before turning on the spot and apparating to the Burrow. Between hearing the vitriol from Ginny's mouth and his continuing bad mood, his anger flared and he couldn't stand to stay there another moment.

Harry sent Ron off right away to fetch his sister before anything could happen, giving Ron the coordinates. Thanks to their Auror training, that was all that was needed to reach the destination. He was about to go home, but Arthur Weasley overheard the conversation and whisked him away to the garage for a little chat.

"What happened?" Arthur asked, closing the warped wooden door of his little workshop. He had a muggle clock open on his workbench, with half the mechanism exposed.

"She insulted my friends and my boys. Said they were boring," Harry admitted.

Arthur looked disappointed and was silent for a few minutes, before he sighed and said, "Harry, sometimes some people need more time to grow up. She is jealous of your Leo and Teddy. This has been a time of upheaval, chaos, and changes for her and for everyone. She needs time to come to the realization that your boys are an important part of your life. Molly and I try to explain it to her, but sometimes a person just needs to see for themselves."

"Do you really think she'll come around?" Harry asked hopefully.

"I do. As her dad, I think her mum and I have instilled in her the wisdom she needs to make the right decisions. We hope it won't be long before she uses it."

Harry nodded and Arthur clapped him around the shoulder in a man hug. He would've gone inside the house with the wizard, but he could hear Ginny yelling from here, Ron having already retrieved her. Thus he allowed Arthur to go inside to help Molly alone, choosing to apparate home instead.

That evening Pig arrived for a second time with a note from Ginny.

—_Harry _

_ I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I hope to see you at the pub tomorrow after work for a Butterbeer._

_ —Ginny _

It wasn't much, but it was more than Ginny had ever offered before. Harry remembered Arthur's words and decided to give her another chance. Thus he sent Pig with a return message that he would be there.

The next day was a hectic one at Auror Headquarters, with the place teeming with captured werewolves. The fully trained Aurors had used the information provided by Draco to take down an entire camp of them hiding out in the woods. Harry, Ron, and the rest of the trainees were put to work processing and filling out paperwork. Harry was even allowed to sit in on the interrogation of Deimos Greyback, the leader of the pack and the one urging all of the others to infect innocent witches and wizards.

Deimos Greyback was a real piece of work. Harry decided that Deimos was the lowest and scummiest life-form he'd ever met. The werewolf was every bit as indoctrinated into the ways of his father as Draco was to Lucius' pureblood beliefs.

After spending the afternoon trying to get information out of the dirt-bag, Harry was so exhausted that he'd forgotten all about his fight with Ginny the previous day. He went with Ron to the pub that evening and the three of them drank until he couldn't remember anything anymore. Ron helped him back home. At work the next day Ron informed him that he'd drunkenly agreed to go to Ginny's friends' instead of visiting Neville. He couldn't remember agreeing to that, but a drunken promise was still a promise and he intended to keep it. Neville and Luna would understand.

A quick trip home to Grimmauld Place was needed for Harry to change, before he apparated over to the Burrow to pick Ginny up. From there they flooed together to Sydney's house.

Being a sixth, going on seventh, year, Sydney still lived with her parents at the Snyder family home. It was a small house with a cluttered living room filled with overstuffed furniture and knickknacks that Umbridge would've been proud of. Harry tripped over the coatrack exiting the fireplace, but instead of having to stay and try not to knock anything else over, he was thankfully motioned down a flight of stairs into the basement. The basement was empty, except for a small group of witches and wizards gathered around a cheap table spread with chips, dip, cupcakes, a large punch bowl, and a wizarding wireless, which blared the Weird Sisters' music like it was in.

Harry recognized Sydney, Alice, Shane, Dennis, and Demelza, but there was a sixth person, a wizard, there who he couldn't place.

"Ginny! Harry! So good of you to make it!" Sydney yelled loudly over the music, sounding at least half drunk, and holding onto the unknown wizard. As always, her makeup was applied heavily, giving a cartoonish look to her average features. "This is my boyfriend Kellan! His parents sent him to France during the war, but he's back now! He graduated this year!"

"Wasn't he in the year above Harry? Shouldn't he have graduated last year?" Ginny asked her friend, before saying directly into Harry's ear. "Kellen was one of the ones who left Hogwarts when Voldemort returned after the Twiwizard tournament."

"Yes, but it took him a year to learn the language," Sydney explained. Kellen just shrugged.

Before the greetings even finished, Harry found himself with a glass full of obviously spiked punch. It tasted more like whiskey than it did fruit juice. Ginny and her friends always drank heavily, because the alcohol helped Alice get past her shyness, lowering her inhibitions. Unfortunately, Sydney didn't need her inhibitions lowered any more than they were in her default state and alcohol usually had her acting the fool. Sometimes Sydney was the life of the party, but anyone left sober would say that her antics were childish and annoying.

And as long as Harry was drunk too, he could tolerate Ginny's annoying drunk friends. He soon found himself dancing poorly with Ginny, bumping into the other couples. During his more sober dance breaks, he took the chance to say a few words to Demelza and ask how she'd been. Demelza wasn't terribly interested in her date Dennis, but Dennis had asked and asked and practically badgered her into the first date. She was thinking of ending it soon, but was worried about how Dennis would take it after having lost his brother so recently.

The Creevey brothers were also among Ginny's band of misfits she'd collected over the years. Harry had always found the pair of boys with their Harry Potter fan club annoying. Tragically, Colin was killed during the final battle and Dennis hadn't taken it well. Ginny responded by doing what she always did, making sure he was always invited along with them. Harry wished Dennis wasn't around so much, but helping others by including them in on the party was one of her things. That she wanted to help and include everyone was one of the things that had made Harry fall in love with her. The only problem was that she seemed unwilling or unable to extend that same compassion to Teddy and Leo.

As the night wore on and the drinks flowed, Harry's dancing ability worsened considerably to the point where he'd been kicked off the dance floor. The final straw was when he'd slipped and run into Sydney and her date. Ginny had been teaching him to dance all summer and he was getting better at it. Ginny liked teaching him, but she had a limited amount of patience and could only take so many stepped on toes.

Harry found himself sitting on the floor leaning back against the wall, listening to the music, wondering what he was doing here. He wanted to be with his friends. He wanted to talk to Neville, Luna, Dean, and Seamus. It would be good to see Parvati and Hannah too. But no, he was once again at Ginny's thing, doing what Ginny wanted.

Ginny was now dancing with Kellen's younger brother Ellard, who had shown up with the next round of drinks. Ellard looked much more familiar than his brother and it was soon revealed that he had been in Harry's year in Ravenclaw, before being pulled out of school with his brother. He had one year left of school and his parents were allowing him to transfer to Hogwarts, meaning that he'd be in the same year as Ginny now.

Harry thought that he ought to be jealous of how close Ellard and his girlfriend were dancing together or maybe even that Ellard was dancing so much better than he ever managed. Maybe it was the Scotch Ellard had brought, but Harry couldn't quite manage to care. If he cared about anything, it was getting home so he could sleep the coming hangover off. He'd promised Teddy and Leo that he'd spend the next day with them at the park. They were babies and probably wouldn't know, but he didn't want to get into that habit now or ever.

The others drifted away then, as they walked to the other side of the basement to join a drunken game involving a ping pong ball and cups of alcohol. Harry was too exhausted to move and his eyes soon closed as he finally succumbed to sleep. He woke up on the cold basement floor around four am and puked his guts out into a bucket brought to him by a house elf. He found his glasses on the floor near where he'd slept, which he had to wash cupcake frosting off of, before putting them back on. Then he checked the other passed out bodies still strewn on the floor for Ginny, but she wasn't there, so he apparated straight home, without saying a word to anyone.

Harry drank a vial of hangover potion, before making his way to his own bed and falling asleep, grateful to have the comfort of a real bed once more. His last thought was that he was going to have to stop drinking so much. He woke a few hours later feeling much better and took his boys to the park as promised.

* * *

Author's Note: A reviewer suggested making Harry jealous by giving Draco a love interest and sending Draco on a date, so I'm thinking about doing that next. I'm imaging some arranged thing, planned by Lucius. He seems like the sort of overbearing father who would try to arrange a marriage. Do any of you have any ideas? And just how experienced in love do you think Draco should be? At first I thought he might have done some experimentation at Hogwarts and that since Harry hadn't ever been with a man, Draco might be the aggressor. But as I started thinking about where this story was going, that didn't fit at all, so I decided Draco should be a virgin. But, just because he's never had sex, doesn't mean he hasn't done anything. At least he's probably kissed on gone on dates, but there is still a lot of in between area. Most important is the attitude Draco should have when talking about it. Should he come off as innocent, reluctant, or willing? It sounds a bit weird to me to have him overplay the modesty card…but on the other hand, we're talking about an arranged date of his father's picking, not a date with the man he wants.

Please review!


End file.
